Orthographic processing efficiency in developmental dyslexia: an investigation of age and treatment factors at the sublexical level

Reading fluency beyond decoding is a limitation to many children with developmental reading disorders. In the interest of remediating dysfluency, contributing factors need to be explored and understood in a developmental framework. The focus of this study is orthographic processing in developmental dyslexia, and how it may contribute to reading fluency. We investigated orthographic processing speed and accuracy by children identified with dyslexia that were enrolled in an intensive, fluency-based intervention using a timed visual search task as a tool to measure orthographic recognition. Results indicate both age and treatment effects, and delineate a link between rapid letter naming and efficient orthographic recognition. Orthographic efficiency was related to reading speed for passages, but not spelling performance. The role of orthographic learning in reading fluency and remediation is discussed.     

If You Haven't Been There, You Don't Know What It's Like: Doing Day Care

This article examines Sarason's (1995) political principle-“if you are going to be affected, directly or indirectly, by a policy, you should stand in some relationship to the decision making process”-in the work lives of teacher-caregivers in a day care center in a small Midwestern town. Based on ethnographic research, the article explores the face-to-face interactions of teacher-caregivers in the larger highly asymmetric and highly regulated relational system within which day care is situated. It concludes that they have little say in the decisions that affect their daily work lives.     

Attending behavior of children near a child who is reinforced for attending

The present study investigated effects of a token program for one child on the behavior of other children in the class. Three nursery school children, sitting at adjacent desks, were observed under five conditions. In Baseline I and Reinforcement I the rewarded child sat between the two unrewarded children. In Baseline II, Reinforcement II and Baseline III the rewarded child sat on the end, and the two unrewarded children alternated at the middle desk. The rewarded child received tokens for attending behavior in the Reinforcement conditions. The teacher's behavior was carefully controlled. Results were: (a) The rewarded child's attending increased in the Reinforcement conditions; (b) The unrewarded children's attending increased in Reinforcement I but remained at baseline in Reinforcement II; (c) Both unrewarded children attended better when seated at the center desk in Reinforcement II; (d) No disturbing effects were found in the behavior of unrewarded children.     

Biochemical diagnosis of liver disease

It is important that clinicians and laboratorians, including clinical chemists and pathologists, recognize and understand the clinical significance of abnormal liver function tests. The liver regulates many important metabolic functions. Hepatic injury is associated with distortion of these metabolic functions. Hepatic disease can be evaluated and diagnosed by determining serum concentrations of a number of serum analytes. Many serum analytes exist to assist in the biochemical diagnosis of liver disease. The focus of this paper is on the analytes which are associated with hepatic necrosis, cholestasis, defects in excretion and end stage hepatic disease which results in decreased synthetic function. The abnormalities of these serum analytes will be correlated with the important types of liver disease.     

Teacher depressive symptoms and children's school readiness in Ghana

This study investigated associations between kindergarten teachers' (N = 208) depressive symptoms and students' (Ghanaian nationals, N = 1490, M_age = 5.8) school-readiness skills (early literacy, early numeracy, social–emotional skills, and executive function) across 208 schools in Ghana over one school year. Teachers' depressive symptoms in the fall negatively predicted students' overall school-readiness skills in the spring, controlling for school-readiness skills in the fall. These results were primarily driven by social–emotional skills (r = .1–.3). There was evidence of heterogeneity by students' fall skill levels; teacher depressive symptoms predicted more negative spring overall school readiness for children who had higher fall school-readiness skills. Findings underscore the importance of teachers' mental health in early childhood education globally, with implications for policy and practice.