Search

Children who underwent posterior fossa tumor removal may have spoken or written language impairments. The present systematic review synthesized the literature regarding the language outcomes in this population. Benefits of this work were the identification of shortcomings in the literature and a starting point toward formulating guidelines for postoperative language assessment. A systematic literature search was conducted, identifying studies with patients who had posterior fossa surgery before 18 years of age. Included studies were narratively synthesized to understand language outcomes by language function (e.g., phonology, morphosyntax) at a group and individual level. Furthermore, the influence of several mediators (e.g., postoperative cerebellar mutism syndrome (pCMS), tumor type) was investigated. A critical evaluation of the language assessment tools was conducted. The narrative synthesis of 66 studies showed that a broad spectrum of language impairments has been described, characterized by a large interindividual heterogeneity. Patients younger at diagnosis, receiving treatment for a high-grade tumor and/or radiotherapy and diagnosed with pCMS seemed more prone to impairment. Several gaps in language assessment remain, such as a baseline preoperative assessment and the assessment of pragmatics and morphosyntax. Further, there were important methodological differences in existing studies which complicated our ability to accurately guide clinical practice. Children who had posterior fossa surgery seem to be at risk for postoperative language impairment. These results stress the need for language follow-up in posterior fossa tumor survivors. • Posterior fossa tumor survivors may be at risk for language impairment. • A comprehensive language follow-up seems necessary. • Important gaps in pre- and postoperative language assessment remain. • Methodological irregularities stress the need for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic review examines which domain-specific numeracy skills in the first year of formal schooling most reliably predict achievement in mathematics during primary school. Longitudinal studies that assessed domain-specific skills in the first year of formal schooling and mathematical outcomes at a later grade in primary school were included. Databases were searched in July 2020. Fifty-four studies were included, representing 13,453 participants. We investigated the strength of the associations between different types of domain-specific skills and mathematical outcomes through correlated effects models and random effects univariate meta-analyses. Results showed small to large significant positive correlations. The strength of the evidence is limited by the small number of studies and the variability found in measures. The findings are analyzed in light of theoretical models of numerical cognition. Implications for future research are discussed. • Domain-specific skills were selected for inclusion based on theoretical models. • There is a lack of robust evidence to support a preferred domain-specific skill. • The strength of the evidence is limited by between study variability. • There is a need for higher consistency in measures used in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a group, poor comprehenders (children who have poor reading comprehension despite age-appropriate decoding abilities) have often been shown to have vocabulary difficulties. However, vocabulary knowledge is complex and could affect reading comprehension in more than one way. We explored this complexity by assessing the vocabulary and oral language skills of poor comprehenders at the individual level. All poor comprehenders displayed some degree of oral language deficit in the context of intact nonword and irregular word reading skills, but patterns of oral language deficit differed across participants. The majority had weak vocabulary skills which took the form of semantic weaknesses, while a minority had age-appropriate vocabulary skills but poor syntactic or listening comprehension skills. Our results support the Simple View of Reading and demonstrate the importance of considering individual variation when developing theories of, and treatments for, poor reading comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We report the first three cases of selective developmental letter position dyslexia in English. Although the parents and teachers of the children were concerned about these children''s reading, standard tests did not reveal their deficit. It was only when the appropriate target words were presented, in this case, migratable words, that their letter position dyslexia was detected. Whereas previous research has described cases with acquired and developmental forms of letter position dyslexia in Hebrew and Arabic readers, this is the first report of this type of reading disorder in English. The cardinal symptom of letter position dyslexia is the migration of letters within the word (reading slime as ‘smile’; pirates as ‘parties’). These migration errors occur in reading aloud as well as in tasks of silent reading. This study provides further evidence that migration errors emerge at the level of early visual-orthographic analysis, in the letter position encoding function. Alternative explanations for the occurrence of migration errors such as poor phonological processing or a deficit in the orthographic input lexicon are ruled out. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We investigated children's knowledge of single- and multiple-letter grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs). • There was variability in GPC knowledge across children and across GPCs. • GPCs that are vowels, consist of multiple letters or occur less frequently in text were more difficult for children. • Type and token GPC frequency did not differentially predict GPC knowledge. • Children did not show an advantage for the initial grapheme of their first name when asked to provide its associated phoneme. In this study, we examined Australian children's knowledge of single- and multiple-letter grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs), and the influence of five different factors – GPC complexity, phoneme status, the child's name, GPC entropy, and GPC frequency – on GPC knowledge. Data from 337 Australian children enrolled in Kindergarten to Grade 3 were included in the study and analyses were performed using mixed effects models. Results indicate that GPC knowledge varied across children and GPCs, children were almost twice as likely to accurately pronounce single-letter graphemes compared to multiple-letter graphemes, and performance was better for GPCs which occur more frequently in text. GPCs with higher entropy values (less consistent) had close to 40% lower odds of being known by children. The study has practical implications by providing an evidence-based guide for the order in which GPCs should be introduced to children in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]