Beginning readers' use of talking books: styles of working

This paper examines young children's working styles when they are engaged with a peer on a computer‐based reading task. Two types of pairing were investigated: (i) ‘Equal’ pairs, where the children were of equal reading attainment and (ii) ‘Unequal pairs’, where there was a disparity between the children's reading attainment. The results suggest that the children's reading attainment and/or their gender may be more significant factors in determining the nature of children's collaborative activity than pair type. The implications of these results for practitioners who wish to use talking books as a classroom resource are discussed.     

Dissonance between the digitally created words of school and home

This article considers the potential for dissonance that one 12‐year‐old child (Clare) may experience as a text producer using new technologies, when working across a range of contexts. In this ongoing case study, two types of text are explored: a computer‐generated text produced as a homework task for school, and texts produced using an Internet‐based social network site called ‘Bebo’. Key features of Clare's text production in both contexts are identified and compared in an attempt to establish the dissonance that may be experienced as she switches from one context to another. However, by placing the texts alongside each other, it can be seen that although they look markedly different, the acts of composing the texts bear some significant resemblance. The article concludes by suggesting that experiences of dissonance in relation to text production may in fact be lodged more firmly with the recipient of any text, when it fails to meet their social, cultural and linguistic expectations, than with the child composer.     

Use of predictive text in text messaging over the course of a year and its relationship with spelling,orthographic processing and grammar

An investigation into the impact of predictive text use upon the literacy skills of primary school, secondary school and university cohorts was conducted over the course of a year. No differences in use of text abbreviations (‘textisms’) were found between predictive text users and nonusers. However, secondary school children who used predictive text made more genuine spelling errors than nonusers. Predictive text was related to use of some specific grammatical violations in school‐age children's text messages but was not related overall to the tendency to make grammatical errors when texting. University students, however, made significantly fewer grammatical errors in their text messages when they used predictive text. Over the course of a year, predictive text use was variable for all age groups. Consistency of predictive text use was unrelated to grammatical understanding, spelling or orthographic processing for primary and secondary school cohorts. Predictive text use was negatively related to morphological awareness for adult participants.     

The roles of specialist provision for children with specific speech and language difficulties in England and Wales: a model for inclusion?

Children with specific speech and language difficulties pose a challenge to the education and health systems. In addition to their language difficulties they are also at risk of literacy and social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The main support for children with more severe difficulties has been enhanced provision in mainstream schools (language units or integrated resources) and special schools. The move to an inclusive education system challenges this tradition. This paper reports the results of interviews with heads of language units/integrated resources and head teachers of special schools (n = 57) as part of a larger study within England and Wales. Their views are considered with reference to criteria for entry to specialist provision, the development of collaborative practice between teachers, teaching assistants and speech and language therapists, and the implications for inclusive education.     

The Developing Bodily Self: How Posture Constrains Body Representation in Childhood

Adults’ body representation is constrained by multisensory information and knowledge of the body such as its possible postures. This study (N = 180) tested for similar constraints in children. Using the rubber hand illusion with adults and 6- to 7-year olds, we measured proprioceptive drift (an index of hand localization) and ratings of felt hand ownership. The fake hand was either congruent or incongruent with the participant’s own. Across ages, congruency of posture and visual–tactile congruency yielded greater drift toward the fake hand. Ownership ratings were higher with congruent visual–tactile information, but unaffected by posture. Posture constrains body representation similarly in children and adults, suggesting that children have sensitive, robust mechanisms for maintaining a sense of bodily self.     

Early Intervention for Behaviour Problems in Young Children with Developmental Disabilities

This article reviews research on intervention for young children with dual developmental and behavioural problems. It makes a case for intervention to include family variables and to occur in the preschool years. Behaviour problems are common in young children with developmental disabilities. If untreated these problems are likely to persist and become more challenging and severe in adulthood. Behaviour problems interfere with cognitive, social and emotional development, create additional family stress, often lead to exclusion from community services, and result in additional financial costs to the community. Intervention research provides some support for the effectiveness of parent management training and interventions based upon applied behaviour analysis. However, randomised controlled trials with adequate follow-up periods are required, along with the measurement of outcomes for the family as a whole.     

Prosodic awareness and children’s multisyllabic word reading

Prosodic awareness (the rhythmic patterning of speech) accounts for unique variance in reading development. However, studies have thus far focused on early readers and utilised literacy measures which fail to distinguish between monosyllabic and multisyllabic words. The current study investigated the factors that are specifically associated with multisyllabic word reading in a sample of 50 children aged between 7 and 8 years. Prosodic awareness was the strongest predictor of multisyllabic word reading accuracy, after controlling for phoneme awareness, morphological awareness, vocabulary and short-term memory. Children also made surprisingly few phonemic errors while, in contrast, errors of stress assignment were commonplace. Prosodic awareness was also the strongest predictor of stress placement errors, although this finding was not significant. Prosodic skills may play an increasingly important role in literacy performance as children encounter more complex reading materials. Once phoneme-level skills are mastered, prosodic awareness is arguably the strongest predictor of single word reading.     

Orthographic analogies and phonological priming effects

Bowey, Vaughan and Hansen (1998) have demonstrated that once phonological priming effects have been taken in account, there is no orthographic analogy effect for words with common end patterns (e.g. beak–peak). Goswami (1999) has argued that the study on which this claim is based is methodically flawed. This paper attempted to verify Bowey et al.’s claim by using an improved clue‐word procedure with a group of beginning readers, whose phonological awareness and vocabulary was also assessed. The results indicated that while rime‐based analogies seem to be phonological rather than orthographic in nature, beginning readers are able to use an orthographic analogy strategy when reading words that have similar beginnings (e.g. beak–bean).