Parents supporting learning: a non-intensive intervention supporting literacy and numeracy in the home learning environment

In Australia, emphasis in early childhood education policy is placed on the importance of the role of the family as a child's first educator, and finding effective ways to raise the effectiveness of parents in supporting children's learning, development and well-being. International studies demonstrate that the home learning environment (HLE) provided by parents is closely associated with children's cognitive outcomes: literacy activities at home are likely to predict children's literacy abilities and numeracy activities at home are likely to predict children's numeracy abilities. However, studies focusing on building the capacity of primary caregivers to increase informal learning opportunities, such as enhancing children's literacy and numeracy learning in the HLE, have rarely been the focus of research. This study uses a sample of 113 four-year-old children to explore the association of specific aspects of the HLE with different child outcomes while controlling for child and family characteristics. In addition, a non-intensive, yet purposeful and systematic intervention to draw parents’ attention to the principles of dialogic reading and the principles of counting was introduced. Study findings suggest that parents responded positively to this approach, and that literacy and numeracy aspects of the HLE were specific predictors for children's numeracy and literacy competencies.     

Alexia and the neural basis of reading

Three main types of acquired reading disturbance (alexia) have been described and accepted by clinicians. Each features a group of distinct findings and each is found following damage to a separate location within the language dominant hemisphere of the brain. Many different names have been applied to these entities, but posterior alexia, central alexia, and anterior alexia appear to represent both the clinical differentiations and the basic anatomical loci. A fourth type of acquired alexia, called deep dyslexia, has recently been reported, again with separate clinical findings and a different anatomical locus postulated. By comparison of the clinical features of the four alexias with features of alexia in Oriental languages and the reading competency of the nondominant hemisphere, a hypothetical neural basis for the act of reading can be outlined. Presented at the 33rd Annual Conference of The Orton Dyslexia Society, San Diego, California, November 1983.     

The demand for higher education in The Netherlands, 1950–1999

This paper investigates the role of economic factors in the university enrollment decision for the post-war period in The Netherlands. We include those factors standing at the heart of the idea that education is an investment. The econometric results suggest that students are not responsive to tuition fees, but financial support (the sum of loans and grants), the college premium on future labor market earnings, and the alternative wage are important in the enrollment decision.     

Spacing effects and their implications for theory and practice

There is considerable evidence, gathered in a variety of settings and across many different types of materials and procedures, that spaced repetitions—regardless of whether they are in the form of additional study opportunities or successful tests—are a highly effective means of promoting learning. Research on spacing effects is reviewed and its theoretical and educational implications are examined. It is concluded that spacing effects can best be understood in terms of the accessibility hypothesis, and that spaced repetitions have considerable potential for improving classroom learning.     

Interference and Inhibition in Cognition and Behavior: Comments on the Commentaries

In our target article (Dempster & Corkill, 1999a) we presented an overview of recent work on interference and inhibition in cognition and behavior. The commentators provided highly informative feedback about a range of implications of this new body of work for educational psychology, including learning disabilities. In our response to the commentators, we reply to two relatively broad topics they touch on: consciousness and the functionalist tradition of American psychology. We also remark on two relatively narrow issues raised by the commentators: what constitutes irrelevant information and perseveration in the missing addend task.     

Longitudinal course of rapid naming in disabled and nondisabled readers

The Rapid Automatized Naming Test (Denckla and Rudel 1974) was studied cross-sectionally in an sample of kindergartners (n=342) at-risk for reading disability (Study 1), and longitudinally in an n=160 epidemiological normal sample of children tested in first, third, fifth, and eighth grades (Study 2). Study 1 showed faster absolute naming speeds for those with near perfect untimed alphabet recitation, but the stronger and more orderly relation (at r=.31, p<.0001) was between three levels of alphabet recitation accuracy and the relative number/letter naming speed advantage (ratio of mean number/letter naming speed minus mean color/object naming speed over mean color/object naming speed). In Study 2, the number/letter advantage was already strongly present by first grade, and did not increase significantly thereafter, but absolute naming times improved steadily across grades in an exponential decay function. In this sample, the relative number/letter advantage was not related to reading level. However, the absolute color/object naming speed was strongly related to reading level and vocabulary across grades. Norms for the Rapid Automatized Naming Test based on the epidemiological normal sample tested in Grades 1, 3, 5, and 8 are presented in the appendix.