Search

AbstractPurposeMethodResultConclusionWe asked whether children with developmental language disorder can learn vocabulary or grammar targets and curricular content simultaneously. We replicated prior work integrating two language interventions into a first-grade science curriculum and extended it by testing delivery via teletherapy.A parallel arm randomised controlled trial was conducted using telehealth approaches. Children aged 4-7years with developmental language disorder were randomly assigned to one of three arms, science-only (n = 13), science plus grammar (n = 11), and science plus vocabulary (n = 10), with fidelity documented for both science and language instruction. The primary outcome measures were changes in the taught language targets and science content, with secondary outcome measures including distal measures of language and science.Complete data for 32 participants were analysed with mixed effects regression. All arms improved on science and grammar targets, with gains in the vocabulary arm exceeding those in the control arm. There were no gains on the distal measures.Similar to the findings in the replicated study, children with developmental language disorder can learn language targets in the context of curricular instruction. Enhanced rich vocabulary instruction holds promise as an approach that can be embedded in the curriculum and produces gains both in person and via telehealth method of instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans rarely speak without producing co-speech gestures of the hands, head, and other parts of the body. Co-speech gestures are also highly restricted in how they are timed with speech, typically synchronizing with prosodically-prominent syllables. What functional principles underlie this relationship? Here, we examine how the production of co-speech manual gestures influences spatiotemporal patterns of the oral articulators during speech production. We provide novel evidence that words uttered with accompanying co-speech gestures are produced with more extreme tongue and jaw displacement, and that presence of a co-speech gesture contributes to greater temporal stability of oral articulatory movements. This effect–which we term coupling enhancement–differs from stress-based hyperarticulation in that differences in articulatory magnitude are not vowel-specific in their patterning. Speech and gesture synergies therefore constitute an independent variable to consider when modeling the effects of prosodic prominence on articulatory patterns. Our results are consistent with work in language acquisition and speech-motor control suggesting that synchronizing speech to gesture can entrain acoustic prominence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When educators started incorporating the letter A into the STEM acronym to form STEAM some science educators had reservations. Seen from a western, rationalistic way of knowing (Colucci-Gray et al. 2017, 23) the STEM community had detractors regarding the idea of integrating art into science. Hence, scientific language is often thought of as being limited to structured, mathematical forms, while the arts' languages are intuitive and characterized by esthetic quality (Garoian and Mathews 1996, 194). This article describes a science educator's changing beliefs regarding the need for art in STEM and how it led to the creation of an art activity that helps bridge the gap between math, science, and engineering. Specifically, students are involved in creating dioramas to NGSS- MS-LS2-2- Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems. Ratios/proportions and using a spreadsheet for accuracy and speed of calculations are additional concepts discussed within the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, members of the general public have become increasingly reliant on findings of scientific studies for decision-making. However, scientific writing usually features a heavy use of technical language, which may pose challenges for people outside of the scientific community. To alleviate this issue, plain language summaries were introduced to provide a brief summary of scientific papers in clear and accessible language. Despite increasing attention paid to the research of plain language summaries, little is known about whether these summaries are readable for the intended audiences. Based on a large corpus sampled from six biomedical and life sciences journals, the present study examined the readability and jargon use of plain language summaries and scientific abstracts on a technical level. It was found that (1) plain language summaries were more readable than scientific abstracts, (2) the reading grade levels of plain language summaries were moderately correlated with that of scientific abstracts, (3) researchers used less jargon in plain language summaries than in scientific abstracts, and (4) the readability of and the jargon use in both plain language summaries and scientific abstracts exceeded the recommended threshold for the general public. The findings were discussed with possible explanations. Implications for academic writing and scientific communication were offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Parent directiveness is associated with STEM skills via self-regulated learning. • Self-regulated learning links parent STEM talk and child STEM skills. • Parent STEM talk promotes child math skills via child STEM talk. Previous studies document associations between parents' use of guided-play strategies and children's STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) skills. We extend existing research by exploring mediating mechanisms that may account for these links. Parents played with their preschool children (N = 75; 49% girls and 51% boys; 94% White, 3% Black, 1% biracial, 1% Asian, and 1% Native American; M age = 4.82 years) in undertaking a building challenge. Videotaped play was coded for parents' guiding STEM talk (density of math, spatial, and scientific inquiry language) and management strategy (high vs. low directiveness). Mediators included children's STEM talk during play and self-regulated learning (assessed by executive function tests and examiner's ratings of children's task orientation). Structural equation models confirmed hypothesized mediated paths from parent STEM talk to child math (but not spatial) skills via child STEM talk and from parent STEM talk and directiveness to child math and spatial skills via child self-regulated learning. We discuss implications for future research and intervention design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]