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The aim of the present study was to test environmental and cognitive variables as possible cross-domain predictors of early literacy and numeracy skills. One hundred forty-eight preschool children (mean age = 64.36 months ± 3.33) were enrolled in the study. The battery included a home literacy and home numeracy questionnaire, measures and phonological and visuo-spatial working memory, tasks tapping response inhibition, and predictors of literacy (vocabulary, phonological awareness, letter knowledge) and numeracy (magnitude comparison, number knowledge) skills. The structural equation model indicated that verbal working memory and, to a lesser extent, inhibition represented cross-domain predictors, whereas home numeracy activities and visuo-spatial working memory explained additional variance only for early numeracy skills. Implications for parents and educators are discussed.

Background: Mind wandering--that is, a shift in the contents of thought away from an ongoing task--can have detrimental consequences for students' reading comprehension. To date, no evidence is available on the effects of text-to-speech solutions on rates of mind wandering during reading. Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate the effects of text-to-speech technology on frequency of mind wandering and reading comprehension in young students with dyslexia (20) and typical development (50). Methods: Students were presented, on a personal computer, texts and comprehension questions in two modalities: self-paced silent reading and text-to-speech reading. Comprehension scores and mind wandering occurrence were considered. A battery of cognitive tasks and questionnaires on mind wandering and emotional traits was also included. Results: There were no differences in baseline rates of mind wandering between the two groups. In the text-to-speech condition, both groups showed better reading comprehension and reduced rates of mind wandering. Students with dyslexia were significantly more on task in the text-to-speech condition compared to the self-paced reading condition. Implications: These results suggest that text-to-speech might represent a reading solution that allows students with Dyslexia to diminish mind wandering during text-to-speech reading.

Difficulties in mathematics have been described in very preterm children, but their origins are not well understood and may differ from other populations with specific learning disability. Very preterm children, children with learning disability, and typically developing children were compared in mathematics skills, using standardized tools, experimental tasks, and eye-tracker measures. We assessed symbolic and nonsymbolic magnitude comparisons, number knowledge, calculation, as well as cognitive skills of 103 Italian-speaking fourth and fifth graders. Compared to typically developing peers, very preterm children showed delays in number knowledge, slower reaction times in nonsymbolic magnitude comparisons, and an atypical gaze exploration characterized by more and shorter fixations that lacked a target preference. The profile of mathematics skills of very preterm children appeared different from that of children with learning disability. Although both populations showed mainly preserved cognitive skills and slower reaction times in nonsymbolic magnitude comparisons, children with specific learning disability showed more severe impairments in calculation and were slower in symbolic magnitude comparisons, compared to very preterm children. Including eye-tracking measures in preterm follow-up programs and planning tailored interventions are recommended.

In this article, we analyze symbolic and non-symbolic numerical abilities of parents in order to understand whether these are predictors of children's numerical skills, considering basic symbolic, non-symbolic, and formal math skills (i.e., written calculation). A battery of cognitive and math tasks was administered to a sample of 83 children with established formal school experience (i.e., fourth and fifth grade students), and to their mothers. Correlational and regression analyses were performed. The results evidenced significant relationships between children's and mothers' symbolic and math skills, but children's symbolic comparison skills were the most significant predictor of their math skills. The study suggests that the intergenerational features of math skills play a significant role in children's numerical development but that children's math skills ultimately depend mainly on their own numerical processing. Within an educational perspective, the development of symbolic number skills in children is crucial and might allow the constraints of intergenerational transmission of math skills to be reduced.

Background: Reading comprehension is a multifactorial process, but one of its features has been relatively under-investigated--it is the strategy used when answering reading comprehension questions. In order to find the correct answer, children can either respond to questions about a text relying on their text memory or look back at the written text. This study analyses (i) which strategy, memory or look-back is more frequently adopted in primary school children according to grade level and type of text (expository vs narrative) and (ii) the preferred (most frequently used) and more efficient (higher number of correct responses) strategy for poor oral comprehenders. Poor oral comprehenders were selected for having adequate nonword decoding skills but impaired oral comprehension, compared with good oral comprehenders. Methods: The total sample comprised 1,417 primary school children. A standardised test assessing reading and comprehension of oral and written language was administered. Results: In the comparison among children attending different grades, older children showed a more frequent use of the look-back strategy for the expository text, whereas no age-related difference emerged for the narrative text. Poor oral comprehenders (n = 88) showed a different pattern, compared with matched good oral comprehenders (n = 88), for both preference and efficiency of strategies. Despite having a globally poorer performance in reading comprehension, poor oral comprehenders were more accurate than good oral comprehenders when using the look-back strategy. Conclusions: The complex pattern of results obtained reinforces the idea that intervention strategies should be personalised based on individual characteristics and specific for the type of task and text.

The present study aimed to examine how parents' psychological characteristics and positive beliefs about multilingualism predict children's emotional well-being in 51 multilingual families with an immigrant background. Parents were interviewed to assess their beliefs about multilingualism and completed a battery of questionnaires assessing depression, anxiety, psychological distress, parental competence, quality of life, and acculturative stress. They also completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), which assessed their children's socio-emotional and behavioral characteristics. The results from regression analyses showed that parents' depressive symptoms were significant concurrent predictors of children's conduct problems. In contrast, higher acculturation stress was associated with more emotional problems and better prosociality in children, although the stronger predictor for the latter variable was parents' self-efficacy. Positive beliefs about bilingualism were not related to children's well-being. The discussion highlights the importance of targeting parents' depressive traits and acculturation stress as possible risk factors for children's emotional and behavioral problems. Conversely, fostering parental self-efficacy may promote children's prosociality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to assess a protocol for the evaluation of developmental language disorder (DLD) in language minority bilingual children (LMBC). The specific aims were (a) to test group differences, (b) to evaluate the discriminant validity of single measures included in the protocol, and (c) to define which model of combined variables had the best results in terms of efficacy and efficiency. Method: Two groups of LMBC were involved, one with typical development (n = 35) selected from mainstream schools and one with DLD (n = 20). The study protocol included the collection of demographic information and linguistic history; a battery of standardized tests in their second language (Italian), including nonword repetition, morphosyntactic comprehension and production, and vocabulary and narrative skills; and direct (children's evaluation) and indirect (parents' questionnaire) assessment of linguistic skills in their first language. Results: Results showed that the two groups differed in almost all linguistic measures. None of the single measures reached good specificity/sensitivity scores. A combined model that included direct and indirect assessment of first language skills, morphosyntactic comprehension and production, and nonword repetition reached good discriminant validity, with 94.5% of cases correctly classified. Discussion: The study defines a complex picture of the linguistic profile in bilingual children with DLD, compared to typically developing bilingual peers. The results reinforce the idea that no single measure can be considered optimal in distinguishing children with DLD from typical peers. The study offers a concrete example of an effective and efficient protocol with which to discriminate LMBC with and without DLD.

This study compared language minority bilingual (LMB) second graders with two groups of monolingual peers (with comparable low SES or with high SES) in a set of literacy skills (reading fluency, spelling, reading and oral comprehension) tested in the target school language (L2 for bilinguals). The aim was to disentangle the roles of bilingualism and SES in the literacy skills of LMB children. The LMB group appeared comparable to both monolingual groups in reading fluency. However, both the reading comprehension and spelling of bilinguals in the target language were weaker compared to both monolingual groups. Monolinguals and bilinguals with low SES underperformed compared to the high-SES group in oral comprehension. These results confirm previous evidence that reading fluency is a well-acquired literacy skill for low-SES bilinguals, whereas reading comprehension in L2 represents a weakness in their profile. The study adds insights into the difficulties encountered by LMB children in spelling tasks, filling a gap in the previous literature. Finally, oral comprehension seems to be more related to SES than to home language.

Background: Mind wandering (MW) has commonly been linked to bad scholastic performance; however, such association has rarely been investigated in the classroom. Moreover, in examining such association, motivational variables have been largely ignored. Aim: We aimed at examining the associations between the dispositional tendency to engage in MW and a series of reading comprehension skills and measures of academic self-concept above and beyond the role of sex, age, test anxiety, self-efficacy, and self-regulation strategies. Sample: Late adolescents (N = 272, 133 females; 17.23 ± 1.10 years) recruited from 15 classes in public high schools. Methods: Students were examined in their classroom during regular teaching activities and first performed a reading comprehension test. Then, they underwent a battery assessing literacy skills, academic self-concept, the dispositional tendency to mind wander, and aspects related to self-regulated learning. Results: Reading comprehension and literacy skills (decoding, orthographic awareness, spelling skills, and phonological abilities) were not associated with the tendency to mind wander. Instead, MW, test anxiety, and self-efficacy -- but not self-regulatory strategies -- were independent predictors of academic self-concept. Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of evaluating the effects of MW on academic self-concept, taking into account a complex pattern of motivational and emotional variables.

Purpose: This study aimed to assess a protocol for the evaluation of developmental language disorder (DLD) in language minority bilingual children (LMBC). The specific aims were (a) to test group differences, (b) to evaluate the discriminant validity of single measures included in the protocol, and (c) to define which model of combined variables had the best results in terms of efficacy and efficiency. Method: Two groups of LMBC were involved, one with typical development (n = 35) selected from mainstream schools and one with DLD (n = 20). The study protocol included the collection of demographic information and linguistic history; a battery of standardized tests in their second language (Italian), including nonword repetition, morphosyntactic comprehension and production, and vocabulary and narrative skills; and direct (children's evaluation) and indirect (parents' questionnaire) assessment of linguistic skills in their first language. Results: Results showed that the two groups differed in almost all linguistic measures. None of the single measures reached good specificity/sensitivity scores. A combined model that included direct and indirect assessment of first language skills, morphosyntactic comprehension and production, and nonword repetition reached good discriminant validity, with 94.5% of cases correctly classified. Discussion: The study defines a complex picture of the linguistic profile in bilingual children with DLD, compared to typically developing bilingual peers. The results reinforce the idea that no single measure can be considered optimal in distinguishing children with DLD from typical peers. The study offers a concrete example of an effective and efficient protocol with which to discriminate LMBC with and without DLD., Within Grosjean's (1989) pragmatic definition of bilinguals as 'those people who use two or more languages in their everyday life' (p. 4), this study focused on a subgroup of bilingual [...]

Empirical evidence collected so far has revealed that the bilingual advantage cannot be reduced to a single component of the executive functioning, and point to the need to understand the effects of bilingual experience on cognition as influencing a wider family of mental processes, including, but not limited to, cognitive control. The present study aims to explore a relatively underinvestigated domain of bilingual cognitive processes, namely anticipation, through a series of different paradigms tapping proactive and reactive mechanisms at different levels of cognitive complexity and linguistic components. The sample included 25 adult bilinguals (26.5 ± 7.8 years) and 25 monolinguals (26.4 ± 7 years) matched for age, gender, and non-verbal IQ. Participants were administered two experimental tasks: Attentional Network Task (ANT), and auditory picture-word identification task. Compared to monolinguals, bilinguals showed overall faster reaction times and reduced conflict effect on both the ANT and the picture-word identification task. In addition, associations between performances in the nonverbal and the verbal tasks support the role of the nonverbal monitoring component on verbal anticipation. Results are discussed in light of a dynamic interaction between proactive and reactive mechanisms of cognitive control.

The aim of this study was to compare linguistic and narrative skills of monolingual and bilingual preschoolers and to estimate linguistic predictors of the macro-structural level of narratives. A battery of linguistic measures in Italian was administered to sixty-four Monolinguals and sixty-four Early Bilinguals; it included Vocabulary, Phonological Awareness, Morphosyntactic Comprehension, Phonological Memory, Letter Knowledge, and Story Sequencing tasks. The narratives produced in the Story Sequencing task were coded. Bilinguals underachieved, compared to monolinguals, in vocabulary, phonological awareness and morphosyntactic comprehension; they also differed in Type and Token indexes and in free morphology, but not in the level of macro-structural complexity. Macro-structural parameters were predicted by Mean Length of Utterances in monolinguals, but not in bilinguals. Bilingual children are able to structure stories in their L2 with monolingual-like cohesive complexity, although 'in few words', that is, with weak L2 linguistic skills.

In the present study, we aimed to disentangle the impact of bilingualism and socioeconomic status (SES) on literacy in language-minority bilingual children (LMBC) and monolinguals exposed to French. We also wanted to explore the role of these two factors on cognitive and language skills, i.e., verbal knowledge (VK), morphosyntactic comprehension (MC), and phonological short-term memory (PSTM), well known to be important predictors of literacy acquisition. We compared LMBC with low and medium-high SES, and monolinguals with low and medium-high SES. All the children attended Grades 3, 4, and 5. We found that LMBC underperformed monolinguals on VK and MC. Low SES children showed lower scores compared to medium-high SES children on VK, MC, and PSTM. With regard to literacy, LMBC underperformed monolinguals on text and irregular word reading. Low SES children underperformed medium-high SES children only in regular word reading and pseudoword spelling. As a whole, bilingualism had an effect on measures involving lexical components, while SES had a more widespread effect on cognitive and language skills. The results are discussed considering implications for research, clinical, and educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have shown that learning to read in a second language (L2) is similar, in many ways, to learning to read in a first language (L1). Nevertheless, reading development also relies upon oral language proficiency and is greatly influenced by orthographic consistency. This longitudinal study aimed to analyze the role of linguistic predictors (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, pseudoword repetition, morphosyntactic comprehension, lexical knowledge and rapid naming) in reading outcomes (fluency, accuracy and comprehension) in a group of bilingual children (n = 30) reading Italian as an L2, compared to a group of monolingual children (n = 56). We ran a multi-group structural equation model. Our findings showed that rapid automatized naming was a significant predictor of reading speed in both groups. However, the study revealed different patterns of predictors for reading accuracy, predictors for monolinguals being LK, phonological awareness and lexical knowledge, while pseudoword repetition was a predictor for bilinguals. Morphosyntactic comprehension was the most significant predictor of comprehension skills in bilingual children. Implications for clinical and educational settings are discussed.

In this study, two alternative theoretical models were compared, in order to analyze which of them best explains primary school children's text comprehension skills. The first one was based on the distinction between two types of answers requested by the comprehension test: local or global. The second model involved texts' input modality: written or oral. For this purpose, a new instrument that assesses listening and reading comprehension skills (ALCE battery; Bonifacci et al., 2014) was administered to a large sample of 1,658 Italian primary school students. The two models were tested separately for the five grades (first to fifth grade). Furthermore, a third model, that included both the types of answers and the texts' input modality, was considered. Results of confirmatory factor analyses suggested that all models are adequate, but the second one (reading vs. listening) provided a better fit. The major role of the distinction between input modalities is discussed in relation to individual differences and developmental trajectories in text comprehension. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

The present study evaluated which components within the simple view of reading model better predicted reading comprehension in a sample of bilingual language-minority children exposed to Italian, a highly transparent language, as a second language. The sample included 260 typically developing bilingual children who were attending either the first 2 years (n = 95) or the last 3 years (n = 165) of primary school and who had Italian as an instructional language. Children were administered a comprehensive battery for the assessment of decoding skills, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension latent variables. Results showed that, in both groups, listening comprehension was the most powerful predictor of reading comprehension, followed, only for younger children, by reading accuracy. Reading speed was not a significant predictor. These results confirmed the primary role of listening comprehension in predicting reading comprehension in bilinguals and added important evidence regarding the role of reading accuracy as a predictor of reading comprehension.

Many studies have explored how Language-Minority Bilingual Children (LMBC) read and comprehend, while the way they learn to spell and write has received less attention. This study aimed to assess a comprehensive profile of spelling and writing skills in LMBC, comparing performances of 4th and 5th grade bilingual (n = 74) and monolingual (n = 131) children in word and nonword reading and multilevel spelling and writing tasks (word, nonword and passage dictation, and written narrative production). Furthermore, we explored the role of linguistic and cognitive predictors (nonverbal Intellectual Quotient, verbal knowledge, morphosyntactic comprehension, nonword repetition) in spelling and writing outcomes. Our findings showed that, overall, LMBC did not reach a monolingual-like proficiency in spelling by the end of primary school, while they were similar to monolinguals in reading tasks and were able to produce written narratives with adequate macrostructure, syntactic complexity, and lexical variety. Moreover, morphosyntactic comprehension predicted spelling in both groups. Nonverbal intelligence and verbal knowledge predicted spelling skills only for the bilingual group. With regards to writing skills, morphosyntactic comprehension emerged as a predictor exclusively in the bilingual group. These results are discussed with reference to educational and clinical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate physiological activation during reading and control tasks in children with dyslexia and typical readers. Skin conductance response (SCR) recorded during four tasks involving reading aloud, reading silently, and describing illustrated stories aloud and silently was compared for children with dyslexia (n = 16) and a control group of typical readers (n = 16). Children's school wellness was measured through self- and parent-proxy reports. Significantly lower SCR was found for dyslexic children in the reading-aloud task, compared to the control group, whereas all participants showed similar physiological reactions to the other experimental conditions. SCR registered during reading tasks correlated with "Child's emotional difficulties," as reported by parents. Possible interpretations of the lower activation during reading aloud in dyslexic children are discussed.

Early calculation abilities in preschoolers are predictive of mathematics achievement in subsequent grades (e.g., Jordan et al. 2009). Two studies were conducted to evaluate concurrent and longitudinal predictors of early calculation skills. In the first study, 102 preschoolers (57.8% female; mean age?=?60.57?±?8.66 months) were given vocabulary, language comprehension, and verbal working memory tasks and a test battery that evaluated components of early number competence (quantity comparison, counting, number line, size seriation, semantic knowledge of digits, visual-spatial memory). The children were also asked to complete early calculation tasks, including addition and subtraction calculations. The results of this task constituted the dependent variable. The results showed that vocabulary, size seriation, and visual-spatial memory were significant concurrent predictors of early calculation competence. In the second study, 43 children completed the early number competence battery at time 1 (53.5% female; mean age?=?59.30?±?3.46 months) and the linguistic and early calculation tasks at time 2, about 10 months later (mean age?=?69.43?±?3.31 months). The analysis of the longitudinal predictors of early calculation showed significant effects for counting and size seriation. The implications for preschool assessment and intervention are discussed.

Despite their ascertained neurobiological origin, specific learning disorders (SLD) often have been found to be associated with some emotional disturbances in children, and there is growing interest in the environmental and contextual variables that may modulate children's developmental trajectories. The present study was aimed at evaluating the psychological profile of parents and children and the relationships between their measures. Parents of children with SLD (17 couples, 34 participants) and parents of children with typical development (17 couples, 34 participants) were administered questionnaires assessing parenting styles, reading history, parenting stress, psychopathological indexes, and evaluations of children's anxiety and depression. Children (N = 34, 10.7 ± 1.2 years) were assessed with self-evaluation questionnaires on anxiety, depression, and self-esteem and with a scale assessing their perception of parents' qualities. Results showed that parents of children with SLD have higher parental distress, poorer reading history, and different parenting styles compared to parents of children with TD; there were no differences in psychopathological indexes. The SLD group also rated their children as more anxious and depressed. Children with SLD had lower scholastic and interpersonal self-esteem, but they report ratings of parents' qualities similar to those of TD children. Relationships between parents' and children's measures were further explored. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading, but it is a very complex task consisting of multiple component skills. A number of studies have tested the simple view of reading (SVR; Gough & Tunmer, 1986) in opaque languages, but few investigations of the SVR components have been conducted on transparent languages. In the present study, we tested the SVR model in a sample of 1895 Italian children attending primary school, from first to fifth grade. An assessment battery was used, which included five different tasks: word and non-word reading, passage reading, reading comprehension, and oral comprehension. Hybrid models combining confirmatory factor analysis with path analysis were run separately for each grade. Results indicated that oral comprehension was always the best predictor of reading comprehension, whereas reading accuracy played a significant but minor role. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Literature on the so-called bilingual advantage is directed towards the investigation of whether the mastering of two languages fosters cognitive skills in the non-verbal domain. The present study aimed to evaluate whether the bilingual advantage in non-verbal skills could be best defined as domain-general or domain-specific, and, in the latter case, at identifying the basic cognitive skills involved. Bilingual and monolingual participants were divided into two different age groups (children, youths) and were tested on a battery of elementary cognitive tasks which included a choice reaction time task, a go/no-go task, two working memory tasks (numbers and symbols) and an anticipation task. Bilingual and monolingual children did not differ from each other except for the anticipation task, where bilinguals were found to be faster and more accurate than monolinguals. These findings suggest that anticipation, which has received little attention to date, is an important cognitive domain which needs to be evaluated to a greater extent both in bilingual and monolingual participants.

Learning can be considered a function of synthesis in which both cognitive functioning and the domain of affectivity convey. The aim of the present study was to investigate how specific literacy skills, i.e., reading and writing, relate to two main dimensions of negative affectivity, i.e., anxiety and depression. Study 1 was conducted on third grade children (72), while Study 2 focused on first grade children (43). Two groups of participants selected because they had been deemed "at risk" for the development of anxiety or depression and a control group were compared in reading and writing tasks, which included both word and non-word lists. The assessment included also the evaluation of Verbal, Nonverbal and Composite IQs. Results indicated that children "at risk" for depression made more spelling errors in dictation of words in comparison to the control group. No differences emerged in reading tasks or with reference to the group of children "at risk" for anxiety.

English and Italian children with dyslexia were compared with children with reading difficulties associated with low-IQ on tests of simple and choice RT, and in number and symbol scanning tasks. On all four speed-of-processing tasks, children with low-IQ responded more slowly than children with dyslexia and age-controls. In the choice RT task, the performance of children with low-IQ was also less accurate than that of children of normal IQ, consistent with theories linking processing speed limitations with low-IQ. These findings support the hypothesis that dyslexia is a specific cognitive deficit that can arise in the context of normal IQ and normal speed of processing. The same cognitive phenotype was observed in readers of a deep (English) and a shallow (Italian) orthography.