It’s never too late to remediate: Teaching word recognition to students with reading disabilities in grades 4–7

Twenty children in fourth through seventh grade participated in 16 one-hour individual tutorials over a four-month period. Half of the children received structural analysis and alphabet principle training; half received only alphabetic principle training; all received training in orthographic and phonological skills, practice in oral reading of connected text, and monitoring strategies for comprehension. Results showed that the children improved reliably in reading and related measures. Treatment condition did not predict rate of growth. Only rapid automatic naming of letters predicted response to intervention and only on rate of real word reading. Results of this study indicate that upper elementary and middle school students who have not yet mastered accuracy and automaticity of word recognition should be given explicit instruction in word recognition, especially in the alphabetic principle. The benefits of structural analysis training were evident only in trends for individual students on hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) growth analyses. This dissertation research by the first author, and supervised by the second, was supported by Grant No. HD-33812 and Grant No. HD-25858-09 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.     

Book reviews

Northeastern University     

Orthographic processing and visual sequential memory in unexpectedly poor spellers

Does unexpectedly poor spelling in adults result from inferior visual sequential memory? In one experiment, unexpectedly poor spellers performed significantly worse than better spellers in the immediate reproduction of sequences of visual symbols, but in a second experiment, the effect was not replicated. Poor spellers were also no worse at the immediate recognition of symbol sequences. Overall, the results indicate that inferior visual memory is not characteristic of unexpectedly poor spellers. However, they do have less efficient orthographic processing skill: they were significantly slower and more error prone than better spellers at classifying both regularly and strangely spelt words, as well as at detecting letter transpositions in long words. They can thus be considered as subtly worse word readers than better spellers. While the findings question the notion of unexpectedly poor spelling in relation to normal adults, they provide confirmation of the intimate relationship between reading and spelling processes.     

路易斯·布莱叶点字法盲文

19世纪初期,一位法国盲人少年运用他的智慧将原用于军事密报的"巴比耶点写法"改造为简单实用的盲文系统。这就是今天国际通用的"布莱叶点字法盲文",它成了全世界盲人学习知识的有力工具。     

Development and Implementation of a Food Safety Knowledge Instrument

ABSTRACT:  Little is known about the food safety knowledge of young adults. In addition, few knowledge questionnaires and no comprehensive, criterion-referenced measure that assesses the full range of food safety knowledge could be identified. Without appropriate, valid, and reliable measures and baseline data, it is difficult to develop and implement effective education efforts. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive, valid, reliable food safety knowledge questionnaire. Questionnaire development followed this process: 1) use of published reports and input from experts in food safety and sanitation (n = 7) to identify key food safety concepts; 2) development of a question bank (n = 101) assessing knowledge of key concepts (i.e., cross contamination prevention'disinfection procedures; safe times/temperatures for cooking/storing foods; groups at greatest risk for foodborne disease; foods that increase risk of foodborne disease; and foodborne disease pathogens); 3) refinement of initial questions by experts; 4) questionnaire pretest with young adults (n = 180) and refinement; 5) questionnaire pilot test (n = 126) and refinement; 6) final expert review and refinement; and 7) conversion into an online survey. Young adults (n = 4343, mean age 19.9 ± 1.7SD years) from 21 universities and colleges across the country completed the questionnaire. Item analysis was used to determine the overall quality of the test and identify improvements needed. Livingston's coefficient of reliability for criterion-referenced tests was 0.92. The questionnaire met or exceeded generally recognized standards of reliability and validity. This questionnaire could be useful in baseline assessment of food safety knowledge and measurement of knowledge gained after an educational intervention in adults.