Text structure and patterns of cohesion in narrative texts written by adults with a history of language impairment

This paper examines text structure and patterns of cohesion in stories written by a group of adults with a history of childhood language impairment. The study aimed to extend our knowledge of writing difficulties in this group by building upon a study that examined clause level phenomena (Smith-Lock, Nickels, & Mortensen, this issue). Ten adults with a history of Language Impairment and 30 control participants were asked to write the story of Cinderella. Stories were analyzed for their generic structure and cohesion resources, both of which contribute to the organization and coherence of a text. Results revealed that patterns of text organization at the level of generic structure and measures of cohesion did not distinguish the performance of writers with a history of Language Impairment from the comparison group. A wide range of lexico-grammatical skills was evident within the Language Impaired group, with few individuals with Language Impairment falling outside the normal range of performance. It is suggested that generic structure and cohesion are a relative strength in the writing of adults with Language Impairment, within the constraints of their lexical and grammatical skills.

Looking back: On relevance,probabilistic indexing and information retrieval

Forty-eight years ago Maron and Kuhns published their paper, “On Relevance, Probabilistic Indexing and Information Retrieval” (1960). This was the first paper to present a probabilistic approach to information retrieval, and perhaps the first paper on ranked retrieval. Although it is one of the most widely cited papers in the field of information retrieval, many researchers today may not be familiar with its influence. This paper describes the Maron and Kuhns article and the influence that it has had on the field of information retrieval.     

Development of dyslexic subgroups:

There is a consensus that dyslexia is on a continuum with normal reading skill and that dyslexics fall at the low end of the normal range in phonological skills. However, there is still substantial variability in phonological skill among dyslexic children. Recent studies have focused on the high end of the continuum of phonological skills in dyslexics, identifying a “surface” dyslexic, or “delayed” profile in which phonological skills are not out of line with other aspects of word recognition. The present study extended this work to a longitudinal context, and explored differences among subgroups of dyslexics on a battery of component reading skills. Third grade dyslexics (n=72) were classified into two subgroups, phonological dyslexics and delayed dyslexics, based on comparisons to younger normal readers at the same reading level (RL group). The children were tested at two points (in third and fourth grade). The results revealed that the classification of dyslexics produced reliable, stable, and valid groups. About 82 percent of the children remained in the same subgroup category when retested a year later. Phonological dyslexics were lower in phoneme awareness and expressive language. Delayed dyslexics tended to be slower at processing printed letters and words but not at rapid automatic naming of letters, and relied more heavily on phonological recoding in reading for meaning than did phonological dyslexics. A subset of the delayed dyslexics with the traditional “surface dyslexic” pattern (relatively high pseudoword and low exception word reading) was also identified. The surface subgroup resembled the RL group on most measures and was not very stable over one year. The results are discussed in light of current models of dyslexia and recent subgrouping schemes, including the Double-Deficit Hypothesis.     

How does phonological awareness relate to nonword reading skill amongst poor readers?

This study examined phonological awareness at the level of phonemes and rhyme and related this to nonword naming ability. Poor readers were compared with 11 year old chronological-age controls and 8 year old reading-age controls. The poor reader group was impaired for chronological age in all tasks, and impaired for reading age at nonword naming and phoneme deletion. The poor readers' rhyming skills, however, were commensurate with reading age. Individual variation was observed together with exceptions to the group findings; most poor readers performed within the range of the reading-age controls on the phonological tasks and in nonword naming. Dissociations in phonological skills were evident, including indications that intact awareness of rhyme may not be a prerequisite for the development of phoneme awareness. Furthermore, phoneme awareness correlated significantly with poor readers' word and nonword reading ability, whereas rhyming skill did not. Therefore, phoneme awareness may be more important than rhyming skill in understanding reading disorders.     

Injury rehabilitation: a qualitative follow-up study

The current qualitative follow-up study was conducted to enhance the interpretability and meaningfulness of the findings emerging from a 5-week goal-setting intervention study with injured athletes. Semistructured interviews were conducted with a sample of 9 injured athletes, 3 from each of the three intervention study groups (goal-setting, social support control, and control), and cross-case summaries were inductively derived. The study highlighted the importance of individual difference variables, and the interaction of person and situational variables, including support from coaches and club, inability to train, weight gain, slowness of progress, physiotherapist support, and the importance of long-term outcome goals. Possible mechanisms for the observed effects of the goal-setting intervention included the effects of goal-setting on self-efficacy, attributions, perceptions of control, and attention.     

Assessing adolescent mental health in war-affected societies: the significance of symptoms

OBJECTIVE: To compare the use of self-report symptom checklists with qualitative methods for assessing adolescent psychological well-being in a war-affected society. METHOD: A school-based sample of three hundred and thirty seven 13- to 15-year-olds from two communities on opposite sides of the Bosnian conflict (183 from Gorazde, 154 from Foca) completed the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. A gender balanced sub-sample of 40 adolescents was selected on the basis of their combined checklist scores, including equal numbers of high and low scorers from each side. Over the following 6 months this sub-sample was assessed (blind to checklist scores) with qualitative methods that included narrative interviews of child and parent, and participant observation. School marks were taken as a measure of social function. RESULTS: QUALITATIVE: Some children identified as "less well" by qualitative methods denied having symptoms. Some children identified as "well" had symptoms with no pathological significance for them. The lifeline revealed that feeling "less well" could be more related to post-war circumstances than war events. QUANTITATIVE: The two symptom checklist items have shown good internal consistency and discriminant validity. However, comparison with the overall well being revealed that still in 9/40 of cases the reported presence or absence of symptoms did not correspond to the well being of the child. Items of the two questionnaires did not discriminate reliably between children identified as "well" and "less well" by other means. CONCLUSIONS: Self-report checklists may be useful as a public health measure to assess the prevalence of psychological distress in war affected areas, but they are not an adequate means of clinical screening. Checklists used in combination with other qualitative approaches make it possible to identify those in need and avoid unnecessary pathologizing.