Language and reading development in profoundly hearing-impaired children—Intelligence,learning, and communication factors: A review

This review defines educational underachievement and presents information confirming the low reading and even lower language development of profoundly hearing-impaired children. It then discusses the role of intelligence, learning ability, and communication factors in this educational underachievement. Teacher and pupil classroom communication are identified as major factors in the poor educational performance of hearing-impaired children. Some research needs are discussed.     

The impact of homelessness on children.

This article reviews and critiques community-based research on the effects of homelessness on children. Homeless children confront serious threats to their ability to succeed and their future well-being. Of particular concern are health problems, hunger, poor nutrition, developmental delays, anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and educational underachievement. Factors that may mediate the observed outcomes include inadequate shelter conditions, instability in residences and shelters, inadequate services, and barriers to accessing services that are available. Public policy initiatives are needed to meet the needs of homeless children.     

“Scatter Analysis” Techniques Applied to Anxiety Neurotics from a Restricted Culturo-Educational Environment

Hearing-impaired children were individually administered a task in which possession of accumulating candy rewards was made contingent upon the child's decision to stop any further accumulation of the candy. Hearing-impaired children, who under instruction periodically made American Sign Language (ASL) statements about the goodness of the reward, waited significantly longer before terminating the waiting period than did hearing-impaired children instructed to sign statements about the act of waiting and somewhat longer than did hearing-impaired children instructed to sign a neutral statement. Since the pattern of delay was unlike that reported in earlier investigations when nonhandicapped children verbalized similar statements and since variation in mode of communication did not influence delay in nonhandicapped children in the present investigation, the results were interpreted in terms of differences in cognitive controlling mechanisms between nonhandicapped and hearing-impaired children.     

父母学习陪伴与小学生学业不良的关系:亲子学业沟通的中介作用和学习负担的调节作用

采用父母学习陪伴问卷、亲子学业沟通问卷、学习负担量表和学业成绩自我评定量表对578名4-6年级小学生及家长进行调查,探讨父母学习陪伴与小学生学业不良的关系以及亲子学业沟通四个维度（成绩沟通、习惯沟通、态度沟通和方法沟通）的中介作用和学习负担的调节作用。结果发现：（1）父母学习陪伴对学业不良具有显著的负向预测作用;（2）亲子学业态度沟通和方法沟通在父母学习陪伴与学业不良的关系中起完全中介作用;（3）学习负担在亲子学业态度沟通与学业不良之间的调节作用显著。在低学习负担条件下,亲子学业态度沟通对学业不良的改善作用更为明显。本研究结果表明,提高父母学习陪伴的时间和陪伴质量、改善亲子学业沟通方式并适当降低学习负担,可能改善小学生的学业不良。     

Underachievement is many-sided

The concept of underachievement, though widely used and voluminously researched, is still ill-defined. The reason seems to be that underachievers are defined merely in terms of the discrepancy between their predicted and earned grades. So classified, the groups are too heterogeneous to be psychologically meaningful. There are different types of achievers and underachievers who need to be identified and different educational climates that need to be studied, if the concept of underachievement is to become productive in our thinking about high school and college students     

Enhancement of Emotional Intelligence,Family Communication,and Family Satisfaction Via a Parent Educational Program

In this study, 156 participants were tested before and after attending an 8- to 10-week parent educational program to check if their scores on general EI, perspective taking anger expression, family communication, and family satisfaction changed. Also, the study aimed to explore how individual factors (i.e., age, educational status, number of children, etc.) as well as general and specific EI skills are related to family communication and satisfaction and if the educational intervention modified their relationships. Results showed that on the completion of the educational intervention, parents had a modest improvement in family communication and satisfaction, and emotional intelligence, and a limited enhancement of perspective taking and anger expression. The main effects of parents’ age, educational level, and number of children were not significant for any of the variables tested. Also, no statistically significant differences were found between the group of parents attending the program for the first time and the group who had attended similar programs more than once. Finally, emotional intelligence was identified as a mediating variable, which partly explained the relationship of anger expression with family communication and family satisfaction, whereas it fully mediated the relationship of perspective taking with the two family-related variables.     

Performance of hearing-impaired students on planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive (PASS) cognitive processing tasks

This study examined the relationships among planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive (PASS) cognitive processing tasks for a sample of hearing-impaired students. There were 96 students (51 girls, 45 boys), aged 8 years to 16 years 11 months (mean AGE = 12.4 years, SD = 2.5 years). Most of the subjects (59%) received instruction through total communication and the remaining 41% students were enrolled in oral educational programs. The sample students attended a public day school (73%) or a state residential school for the deaf (27%). The confirmatory factorial results demonstrate that the PASS model was supported for this hearing-impaired sample as it has been in previous investigations involving normally hearing samples. These results support other exploratory and confirmatory factorial studies that have shown PASS tasks to be consistent with expectations.     

The comprehension skills of children learning English as an additional language

Background Data from national test results suggests that children who are learning English as an additional language (EAL) experience relatively lower levels of educational attainment in comparison to their monolingual, English‐speaking peers. Aims The relative underachievement of children who are learning EAL demands that the literacy needs of this group are identified. To this end, this study aimed to explore the reading‐ and comprehension‐related skills of a group of EAL learners. Sample Data are reported from 92 Year 3 pupils, of whom 46 children are learning EAL. Method Children completed standardized measures of reading accuracy and comprehension, listening comprehension, and receptive and expressive vocabulary. Results Results indicate that many EAL learners experience difficulties in understanding written and spoken text. These comprehension difficulties are not related to decoding problems but are related to significantly lower levels of vocabulary knowledge experienced by this group. Conclusions Many EAL learners experience significantly lower levels of English vocabulary knowledge which has a significant impact on their ability to understand written and spoken text. Greater emphasis on language development is therefore needed in the school curriculum to attempt to address the limited language skills of children learning EAL.     

Attachment at school age and academic performance.

The association between attachment and school-related cognitive functioning was longitudinally examined for a French Canadian sample of 108 school-age children. The affective quality of mother-child interaction patterns, child cognitive engagement, and quality of child attachment to mother were evaluated during a laboratory visit that included a separation-reunion procedure occurring when the children were approximately 6 years of age. Children's mastery motivation and academic performance were assessed 2 years later (at age 8). Analyses indicated that secure children had higher scores than their insecure peers on communication, cognitive engagement, and mastery motivation. Controlling children were at greatest risk for school underachievement, with the poorest performance on all measures except mastery motivation. Avoidant and ambivalent children were lowest on mastery motivation. Results of mediational analyses support the salience of mother-child interactional processes and child cognitive engagement at school age in explaining relations between attachment and cognitive functioning in school.     

Semantic Language as a Mechanism Explaining the Association between ADHD Symptoms and Reading and Mathematics Underachievement

ADHD is associated with academic underachievement, but it remains unclear what mechanism accounts for this association. Semantic language is an underexplored mechanism that provides a developmental explanation for this association. The present study will examine whether semantic language deficits explain the association between ADHD and reading and mathematics underachievement, taking into account alternative explanations for associations, including verbal working memory (WM) impairments, as well as specificity of effects to inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive ADHD symptom domains. Participants in this cross-sectional study were 546 children (54?% male) ages six to twelve (M?=?9.77, SD?=?1.49). ADHD symptoms were measured via maternal and teacher report during structured interviews and on standardized rating forms. Children completed standardized semantic language, verbal WM, and academic testing. Semantic language fully mediated the ADHD-reading achievement association and partially mediated the ADHD-mathematics achievement association. Verbal WM also partially mediated the ADHD-mathematics association but did not mediate the ADHD-reading achievement association. Results generalized across inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive ADHD symptom domains. Semantic language explained the association between ADHD and reading underachievement and partially explained the association between ADHD and mathematics underachievement. Together, language impairment and WM fully explained the association between ADHD and reading underachievement, in line with developmental models suggesting that language and WM conjointly influence the development of attention and subsequent academic achievement. This work has implication for the development of tailored interventions for academic underachievement in children with ADHD.