The Perfect Reading Test - Is that Possible?

No test is perfect, and test scores, without proper interpretation and without corroborating information, can damage children. Inaccurate scores can easily lead to a reading program, a class placement, or an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that backfires.

To better understand test scores and help ensure that your child’s reading program is effective, read and save these quotes from a test manual I reviewed for the University of Nebraska’s Seventeenth Mental Measurements Yearbook.

• Examiners should be cautious in interpreting the results of even those tests that are reliable at the highest levels because they still possess considerable error. For example, a test with almost perfect reliability (i.e., .95) … still contains about 15% error. As a result, test scores, especially when they are used to make judgments about individuals, must always be interpreted carefully…. In every case, diagnoses and hypotheses resting on test data have to be confirmed by other observations. (GDRT-2-Manual, p. 34).
• Too often examiners forget the dictum that ‘tests don’t diagnose, people do’ and base their diagnoses exclusively on test results, a hazardous enterprise at best. Test results are merely observations, not diagnoses. They specify a performance level at a given time under a particular situation, but they do not tell the examiner why a person performed as he or she did.
• The questions concerning the why of the test performance are the very essence of diagnosis, and they can be answered only by an insightful, competent test examiner. Test results make useful contributions to diagnosis; but in the end, practical diagnosis rests on the clinical skills and experience of examiners. Test results are only aids to clinical judgment. (GDRT-2-Manual, p. 34).

Remember these quotes when reviewing a single test score or set of scores from a single test. If, for example, your child was given a learning evaluation and the examiner administered only one reading test (with several subtests), and other information contradicts your child’s reading test scores, discuss these quotes with the examiner.


Ask her to get objective, representative samples of your child’s reading that supports or disputes her findings. (Good professionals welcome such opportunities; they know all tests and test results contain error.) If impressive corroboration is not found, do not trust the scores. Instead, seek further information, which may include a far more comprehensive assessment of your child’s reading abilities.

Reference
Bryant, B. R., Wiederholt, J. L., & Bryant, D. P. (2004). Manual for the Gray Diagnostic Reading Tests-Second Edition (GDRT-). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

How Children Learn to Read - Book Review

This book brings together in one volume information about the neurobiological, genetic, and behavioral bases of reading and reading disabilities.

In recent years, research on assessment and treatment of reading disability (dyslexia) has become a magnet for the application of new techniques and technologies from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and cognitive neuroscience.

This interdisciplinary fusion has yielded numerous and diverse findings regarding the brain basis of this syndrome, which are discussed in this volume by leading researchers.

Intervention approaches based on such research are presented. The book also calls for research in specific directions, to encourage the field to continue moving into the bold frontier of how the brain reads.

The volume is essential reading for a range of researchers, clinicians, and other professionals interested in reading and reading disability, and also commemorates the tenth anniversary of the Extraordinary Brain Conferences hosted by The Dyslexia Foundation.

Table of Contents

W. Baker, Preface. P. McCardle, N. Landi, K. Pugh, Introduction.


Section 1. Major Themes in the Study of the Neurobiology of Dyslexia. S. Frost, R. Sandak, W.E. Mencl, N. Landi, J.G. Rueckl, L. Katz, K. Pugh, Mapping the Word Reading Circuitry in Skilled and Disabled Readers. G. Rosen, Y. Wang, C.G. Fiondella, J.J. Lo Turco, The Brain and Developmental Dyslexia: Genes, Anatomy, and Behavior. G. Sherman, C. Cowen, From Research Lab to School Front Lines: Talents and Dilemmas in Children with Learning Differences.


Section 2. Methods and Tools. D. Francis, Methodological Advances in Developmental Research. E. Mencl, S. Frost, K. Pugh, Tools for Multimodal Imaging. J. Rueckl, M. Seidenberg, Computational Modeling and the Neural Bases of Reading and Reading Disorders. E. Grigorenko, A.J. Naples, The Devil is in the Details: Decoding the Genetics of Reading.


Section 3. Neurobiological, Genetic, and Cognitive Aspects. F. Ramus, G. Szenkovits, Understanding the Nature of the Phonological Deficit. P. Cornelissen, Visual Word Recognition: Insights from MEG and Implications for Developmental Dyslexia. L.E. Cutting, S.H. Eason, K. Young, A.L. Alberstadt, Reading Comprehension: Cognition and Neuroimaging. R. Olson, B. Byrne, S. Samuelsson, Reconciling Strong Genetic and Strong Environmental Influences on Individual Differences and Deficits in Reading Ability. R. Frost, Reading in Hebrew vs. Reading in English: Is there a Qualitative Difference?


Section 4. Intervention. B. Foorman, S. Al Otaiba, Reading Remediation: State of the Art. L. Siegel, Remediation of Reading Difficulties in English Language Learning Students. M. Wolf, S. Gottwald, W. Galante, E. Norton, L. Miller, How the Origins of Reading Instruct our Knowledge of Reading Development and its Intervention. P. McCardle, K. Pugh, Integration of Methodologies in Cognitive Neuroscience: Research Planning and Policy.

Reviews

"This volume is a valuable contribution to our growing understanding of the biological and cognitive bases of dyslexia. We believe that researchers in neuroscience, genetics, and cognitive science will find useful summaries of current research in these areas. 

Reading instructors looking for current research that is relevant to the development of intervention programs will find the volume challenging but rewarding." – David W. Carroll and Debora P. Carroll in PsycCRITIQUES

Are Educational Tools of Technology Damaging Your Child’s Eyesight?

Computers and three-dimensional (3D) imaging may be a big help to students academically, but almost one-third of parents are concerned that such devices are damaging their child’s eyesight.

The 2011 American Eye-Q survey from the American Optometric Association (AOA) indicates that 53 percent of respondents having children 18 or younger believe that 3D viewing can cause harm to a child’s vision or eyes, while 29 percent are highly concerned that their child may suffer damage to their eyes from prolonged use of computers or hand-held electronic devices.

Today, the majority of schools incorporate computers and 3D imaging as educational tools for students. While both are valuable teaching aids, in addition to being vital to a child’s academic success, many parents are worried that their children may experience eye damage from constantly using these modern marvels of technology.

According to the survey, 62 percent of parents surveyed estimated that their children spent from one to four hours daily using a computer, video game, mp3 player or hand-held electronic device.

According to James Sheedy, O.D., Ph.D., an AOA technology and vision expert, “Today’s classroom technology is extremely visual, making it critical for students to maintain excellent eye health.

Binocular vision, focusing abilities, as well as nearsightedness and farsightedness, should be checked by an eye doctor yearly, particularly as students head back to school.”

The steady use of the latest high-tech devices can cause students to experience a wide range of adverse effects that the AOA refers to as computer vision syndrome (CVS). Symptoms can include; fatigue, headaches, eye strain, neck pain, double or blurred vision, and tired or burning eyes.

To read the full article click here

Dyslexia and SLI: Long-term reading and spelling outcome in Italian

Specific language impairment (SLI) diagnosed in the pre-school years is frequently associated with reading and writing difficulties at school age.

The nature of this relationship is unclear, despite the availability of a large number of studies, mostly on English speaking children. Phonological processing deficits have been considered the prominent cause of both difficulties.

However recent findings in both children with SLI and in children with reading difficulties are not easily accommodated within a single dimensional model explaining the relationship between oral and written language deficits.

This study focuses on the long-term reading and spelling outcome in relation to preschool oral language skills in a group of Italian adolescents with a documented history of SLI.

Sixteen Italian adolescents diagnosed as SLI at our Hospital in the pre-school years and 32 normal controls were submitted to an extensive assessment of oral and written language skills. At a group level SLI adolescents had weak oral and written language skills in almost all tests.

Results show that reading difficulties have some features in common with those of Italian developmental dyslexics but also have distinct characteristics, since reading accuracy and written comprehension, usually relatively spared in Italian developmental dyslexics, were impaired in adolescents with SLI.

Longitudinal analyses showed that expressive morpho-syntactic and lexical abilities at pre-school age were the oral language skills that best predicted reading and spelling outcomes in adolescents with SLI.

However, also children with severe phonological impairment in the absence of other oral language deficits showed later literacy difficulties, although less severe and mainly limited to reading accuracy.

The study supports the notion that there is a complex relationship between oral and written language difficulties which may change at different developmental time points, not captured by a single deficit model, but best conceptualised considering multiple interactions between language skills and literacy abilities.

Long-term reading and spelling outcome in Italian ... [Cortex. 2011] - PubMed result

Coping with Central Auditory Processing Disorder | Pride Learning Center

Are you a parent coping with a child who suffers from Auditory Processing Disorder? The other big question is: How would I know? To answer this, here are a few pointers that determine the nature of the condition and ho wit reveals itself in every day life.

• Is your child easily distracted or bothered by loud or sudden noises?
• Are conversations difficult for your child to follow?
• Are noisy environments upsetting for them?
• Are verbal (word based) maths problems demanding?
• Does your child have difficulty following directions?
• Is abstract information tough to interpret?
• Does your child struggle with reading, spelling, writing, or other speech-related language difficulties?

Central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) occurs when the ear and the brain do not coordinate together completely. Many of the behaviours associated with central auditory processing disorder also appear in other conditions such as learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit hyper-activity disorder (ADHD), also described as ADD.


The symptoms in each individual can range from mild to severe and only a trained professional, such as a speech-language pathologists and an audiologist who specialise in CAPD, can determine if your child actually has a central auditory processing disorder.

If your child does have central auditory processing disorder and finds it difficult to concentrate and follow directions, there are numerous strategies that parents can implement for their child.

What was I supposed to do again?
To help a child with CAPD follow directions, try reducing background noises, always have the child look at you when you are speaking and use simple, expressive sentences. Speaking at a slightly louder volume and at a slower tempo will also help significantly. Have your child repeat the directions back to you aloud a few times and be certain that they understand the directions they are repeating and not just mimicking your voice.

I left my book at school.

A student with CAPD will thrive on routine and structure. Teach your child how to focus and cope in chaotic environments. Before going home for the day, for instance, have the child check his or her assignment book and list what he or she needs to take home that day.

I can’t concentrate; it’s too loud in here.

At school the child should sit towards the front of the room facing the teacher with his or her back to the windows, doors, and other sources of distraction. The teacher can periodically touch the child’s shoulder to remind him or her to focus or get ready for a transition.

Teachers should also use lots and lots of visual aids jotting down instructions or key words on the board, and providing simple written outlines. For younger students a picture or drawing may work better as a reminder.

At home, provide the child with a quiet study place. If you want them to concentrate better, be sure to keep the TV turned off and keep any possible outside stimuli far away.

Make sure the work desk is kept free of clutter and well organised. Maintain a peaceful, organised lifestyle that encourages good eating and sleeping habits and keeping a neat room and desk.

Teachers and parents both need to remember that central auditory processing disorder is a real condition. The symptoms and behaviours are not within the child’s control. Children with CAPD are not being defiant or being lazy.

Help them build a strong self-esteem and learn to advocate for themselves, as they get older. Keep it positive and keep life fun!

ADHD: Increasing Risk Of Written Language Disorder

Children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) have a higher chance of having WLD (written language disorder).

Although the risk is greater for both sexes with ADHD, girls with ADHD have a higher chance of having WLD together with reading difficulties than boys with ADHD, researchers from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and Children's Hospital Boston reported in the journal Pediatrics.

Kouichi Yoshimasu, M.D. and team set out to determine what percentage of children - 5,718 of them, 2,762 girls and 2,956 boys - had WLD. Some of the children had ADHD, while others did not.

They were all born in Rochester between 1976 and 1982 and were still there when they were five years old. They gathered information from school, private tutorial and medical records. They calculated cumulative incidences of WLD, hazard ratios (HRs) and with or without RD.

Author Dr. Slavica Katusic explained that problems with reading and math will usually catch a teacher's attention, whereas writing difficulties are often overlooked.

The USA has one of the highest rates of ADHD in children in the world. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) estimates that up to 10% of 4 to 17 year old American kids have ADHD.

The investigators found that for boys and girls with ADHD, there was a considerably higher cumulative WLD rate by the time they were 19 years old, compared to children without ADHD. 64.5% of boys with ADHD and 16.5% of boys without ADHD had WLD by 19 years of age, compared to 57% and 9.4% among the girls.

Girls with ADHD were found to have a higher risk of having WLD combined with reading difficulties than boys with ADHD. The chances of having just WLD for both girls and boys with ADHD was similar.

The authors concluded:

"ADHD is strongly associated with an increased risk of WLD (with or without RD) for both boys and girls. Girls with ADHD are at higher risk of having WLD with RD compared with boys with ADHD, whereas boys and girls are at the same risk of having WLD without RD."

Article Reference:
"Written-Language Disorder Among Children With and Without ADHD in a Population-Based Birth Cohort"

Kouichi Yoshimasu, MD, William J. Barbaresi, MD, Robert C. Colligan, PhD, Jill M. Killian, BS, Robert G. Voigt, MD, Amy L. Weaver, MS, Slavica K. Katusic, MD Pediatrics August 2011. doi: 10.1542/peds.2010-2581

When the shrieking child is your son - Real Families

A harrowing story from a mother who's son sufferers from Autism Asperger's syndrome. Unfortunately, it is a story many mothers will be all too familiar with. I have included it here to share her experiences with other mothers who are facing the same difficulties.

"My son has Asperger's syndrome. Most people have heard of it by now; even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is rumored to have it. I have my doubts, though. I see little resemblance between the billionaire genius and my 4-year-old son. I wonder if the Facebook founder had daily, explosive, irrational fits when he was 4. I wonder if his mother drank.

I first realize we have a problem when my son is 18 months old. My family tells me his screaming fits are just his way of "pressing my buttons." They say I'm spoiling him; that's why he throws tantrums when he doesn't get his way. But they can't explain his extreme negative reactions to large crowds and loud noises. Once when we're in a public restroom, the automatic toilet flushes, and my son throws himself against the door and begins beating on it in his desperation to get away. The lady in the next stall glares at me when she comes out. I know she thinks I was hitting him. Another time at church, the organist starts playing, and my son dives under the pew in front of him. The man beside us moves over, far over.

I think my little boy is just sensitive, until at age 3, he starts having bathroom issues. He holds it all in until his little tummy was bloated, and once he doesn't go for four days."

The article continues to describe how she takes her son from doctor to doctor with varying degrees of trauma and success. Read the remainder here

ADHD Cases on the Rise in US

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is on the rise, with nearly one in 10 American children receiving an ADHD diagnosis, according to a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"ADHD continues to increase, and that has implications for educational and health care because kids with ADHD disproportionately use more services, and there are several co-morbid conditions that go along with it," Dr. Lara J. Akinbami, lead author of the study, told ABCNews.com.

From 1998 to 2009, according to the study, the percentage of children ever diagnosed with ADHD increased from 7 percent to 9 percent. The study also found a larger increase in ADHD among children in the South and Midwest regions of the U.S.

ADHD is one of the most common behavioral problems in children, characterized by difficulty in sustaining attention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. It continues to occur more frequently in boys than girls, and the number of cases increased by about 10 percent in children living in low-income households.

"ADHD is genetically based and often unnoticed," said Michael Manos, head of the Center for Pediatric Behavioral Health at the Cleveland Clinic. "We're far better at noticing it now, and that is good."

But researchers say it's not clear whether the number of reported cases of ADHD has actually increased or whether there's simply more awareness of the disorder.

"Most informed professionals will concur that it is better reported and recognized. This fact has resulted in the prevalence increases," said Manos.

Every major ethnic group saw an increase in ADHD except for children of Mexican descent.

"Mexican children remain with much lower ADHD prevalence than other Hispanics," said Akinbami. "We tend to miss the differences between Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, and this difference could be largely due to remaining language behaviors and cultural attitudes. Whether this is a real lower prevalence or if it remains unreported is unclear."

Past research shows that only about half of children who qualify for an ADHD test actually receive one, researchers noted in the study.

"With prevalence rates so high across sex and race, and with the barriers that limit treatment in low-income families, we do a disservice to a large percentage of our population," said Manos.

"There are ways of making the world work for people with ADHD, people whose attention functions serve other purposes than those required in school," continued Manos. "If we got serious, we would completely alter how we teach children to learn. If we created educational programs that work for children and youth with ADHD, we would create educational programs that work for everyone."

25 Incredible Technologies for the Learning Disabled

Learning disabilities manifest themselves in countless ways, varying in severity from the very mild to the debilitating and those that impact different elements of education. Yet they almost universally end up equally stereotyped, misunderstood and sometimes even unfairly stigmatized.

The rigid traditional classroom structure rarely provides the learning disabled with the resources necessary to meet their reading, writing, math, social and mobility skills or sense impairment. Because of this, many learning disabled students feel marginalized by their peers and instructors alike, oftentimes hindered more by imposed isolation than the conditions themselves but as technology marches on, so too do opportunities for academic success.

No matter their struggle, these perfectly competent, capable individuals probably have something available to close any unfortunate, challenging gaps. It’s all a matter of finding the right answer and finding ways to pay for it — though the more financially strapped have a few options available, depending on their situation and what they require.
Please be aware that this article is not meant to take the place of legitimate medical advice. Different individuals require different solutions based on numerous factors, and only a small sample of the myriad assistive technologies available receives representation here. Take it as a brief overview rather than something even one atom definitive or professional — save diagnoses and prescriptions for the experts.
Read the full article here: 25 Incredible Technologies for the Learning Disabled | Best Colleges Online

Fishing games gone wrong: Trial-and-error behind important cause of female infertility

When an egg cell is being formed, the cellular machinery which separates chromosomes is extremely imprecise at fishing them out of the cell's interior, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have discovered.

The unexpected degree of trial-and-error involved in this process could explain why errors in the number of chromosomes in the egg cell are the leading cause of miscarriages and severe congenital diseases such as trisomies like Down's syndrome, as well as an important cause of female infertility.

he findings are published online in Cell.

Our cells have two copies of each chromosome, one inherited from our mother and the other from our father. An oocyte, the cell that matures into an egg cell, has to discard half of its chromosomes, keeping only the maternal or paternal copy of each. To do so, fibres called microtubules act like fishing lines, attaching themselves to chromosomes and reeling them in to opposite sides of the cell. However, the EMBL scientists discovered that these microtubules are much worse fishermen than expected, often incorrectly hooking onto a chromosome and having to let it go again.

"We saw that they have to go through several tries before getting the connection right," says Jan Ellenberg, who led the work at EMBL: "overall, 90% of all chromosomes get connected in the wrong way, and therefore the pathway that corrects these errors is heavily used."

The difficulty in the oocyte is that two fishing lines cast from opposite sides of the cell have to attach themselves to the maternal and paternal copies of the same chromosome. Each of those chromosome copies has a protein structure called a kinetochore, which acts like the magnet in a toy fish, providing the spot for the microtubule 'fishing lines' to attach themselves. The EMBL scientists were the first to track the movement of all kinetochores throughout the whole 8 hours of the first round of cell division in mouse egg cells, which are very similar to human ones.

"We were able to get very high resolution images for extended periods of time," explains Tomoya Kitajima, who carried out the work, "because our lab developed a microscope that automatically searches for chromosomes, zooms in, and scans only the area they are in, doing very little damage to the cell."

Speaking and Understanding Speech Share the Same Parts of the Brain

The brain has two big tasks related to speech: making it and understanding it.

Psychologists and others who study the brain have debated whether these are really two separate tasks or whether they both use the same regions of the brain.

Now, a new study, published in the August issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that speaking and understanding speech share the same parts of the brain, with one difference: we don't need the brain regions that control the movements of lips, teeth, and so on to understand speech.

Most studies of how speech works in the brain focuses on comprehension. That's mostly because it's easier to image the brains of people who are listening quietly; talking makes the head move, which is a problem when you're measuring the brain.

But now, the Donders Institute at the Radboud University Nijmegen, where the study was conducted, has developed technology that allows recording from a moving brain.

Laura Menenti, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Glasgow, co-wrote the paper along with Peter Hagoort of Radboud University Nijmegen and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Sarah Gierhan and Katrien Segaert.

Menenti was initially interested in how the brain produces grammatical sentences and wanted to track the process of producing a sentence in its entirety; looking not only at its grammatical structure but also at its meaning.

"What made this particularly exciting to us was that no one had managed to perform such a study before, meaning that we could explore an almost completely new topic," says Menenti.

The authors used functional MRI technology to measure brain activity in people who were either listening to sentences or speaking sentences.

The other problem with measuring brain activity in people who are speaking is that you have to get them to say the right kind of sentence.

The authors accomplished this with a picture of an action -- a man strangling a woman, say -- with one person coloured green and one coloured red to indicate their order in the sentence.

This prompted people to say either "The man is strangling the woman" or "The woman is strangled by the man." (The experiments were all carried out in Dutch.)

From this, the researchers were able to tell where in the brain three different speech tasks (computing meaning, coming up with the words, and building a grammatical sentence) -- were taking place.

They found that the same areas were activated for each of these tasks in people who were speaking and people who were listening to sentences.

However, although some studies have suggested that while people are listening to speech, they silently articulate the words in order to understand them, the authors found no involvement of motor regions when people were listening.

According to Menenti, though the study was largely designed to answer a specific theoretical question, it also points towards some useful avenues for treatment of people with language-related problems.

It suggests that while it sometimes seems that people with comprehension problems may have intact production, and vice versa, this may not necessarily be the case. According to Menenti, "Our data suggest that these problems would be expected to always at least partly coincide.

On the other, our data confirm the idea that many different processes in the language system, such as understanding meaning or grammar, can at least partly, be damaged independently of each other."

Dogs helping children to read - Cesar Milan

I'm Listening!

Lately, there have been a number of programs springing up around the world where young children and older children with learning disabilities have been entered into programs where they have been reading to dogs. Dogs, you say?

While our canine brethren have been enthusiasts of running about wildly, chasing the Frisbee, swimming, and many other athletic pursuits, it’s been rare that they’ve been regarded by us humans as any meaningful participant in a literary salon.

The vast majority of pooches haven’t even read Old Yeller, The Call of the Wild, or even Marley and Me.

Yet, these four-legged critics are being enlisted to hear recitations of Dr. Seuss, Hans Christian Andersen, and J.K. Rowling in schools and libraries everywhere, where previously they might not even have been let through the door due to various hygiene considerations. So what’s going on?

Studies have begun to show that children who read to an audience perform much better when the audience is a dog as opposed to an adult human or a group of human peers.

The theory is that because the dog (usually a trained therapy dog) is attentive and nonjudgmental, the child feels more comfortable working through any difficulties sounding out the words or assembling the sentences conceptually knowing the dog won’t mock or laugh, but only support.

For children who are beginning to read, or are a little behind developmentally, or suffer from dyslexia, autism, or learning disabilities, an environment with a friendly companion like a professional therapy dog (or even a well-trained family pet) can create a safe atmosphere where they can work out their difficulties but not feel trivialised by classroom peers or fear disapproval of adult authority figures.

The use of dogs to provide encouragement to improve literacy can’t solve all problems associated with learning disabilities. Other educational techniques must be used in conjunction with reading to dogs to help overcome whatever challenges the reader faces, and it avoids the embarrassment of making mistakes in front of other people.

Dogs relieve the social pressure for the beginning reader to “get it right.” Dogs will enjoy the story even if the words are mispronounced or the delivery is halted. The dog won’t laugh and won’t make wisecracks if the reader makes mistakes and the dog’s attention and lack of judgment will hopefully help the reader keep moving forward and improving.

Recent studies have shown the improvements in the “dog readers” outshine the ones who don’t read to dogs.

A personal note from Cesar Milan: 'When my nephews were young and learning to read, a common holiday pastime was to ask them to come out and read a book to me. They were usually told for encouragement and aspiration that their uncle made his living reading and writing and he would be really excited to see how good they were (so, no pressure!). And my nephews, who had horsed around with me all day, giggled about everything, and been generally relaxed, sat down on the couch next to me, cracked open a storybook and began to read.'

'They would sit stiffly and read in trembling voices, with fearful glances at me to see if they had said the words correctly. It was painful, like watching a hostage read a prepared statement. I told them not to worry, that I thought they were awesome and you know, I still screwed up words, too and I think they kind of believed me. But still, I couldn’t say it like a dog could.'

Connect to Cesar's website here