Résumé
Resumen Introducción : La población de niños que comienzan con lentitud el desarrollo del lenguaje varía amplia mente, tanto en su perfil inicial como en la respuesta a la intervención. En este sentido, existe un grupo de niños, denominados hablantes tardíos, que continúan mostrando dificultades persistentes en el lenguaje. Al gunos de estos niños muestran signos compatibles con la dispraxia verbal, y que se ponen de manifiesto a lo largo de la intervención. Método : En este trabajo presentamos la diferente respuesta a la intervención de dos perfiles de hablante tardío. Concretamente, se aplicó el programa Target Word©, del centro Hanen, que conjuga la técnica de la estimulación focalizada con la orientación a padres so bre estrategias que promueven el desarrollo del lenguaje. Resultados : Gran parte de la sintomatología mostrada en uno de los dos casos, que experimentó un progreso pobre, coincide con las descripciones retrospectivas de niños posteriormente diagnosticados con dispraxia y pueden considerarse indicadores tempranos del trastor no: ininteligibilidad, inventario consonántico reducido o dificultades en la repetición de palabras. Discusión : La diferente respuesta a la intervención contribuye a la toma de decisiones diagnósticas y a la aplicación temprana de estrategias específicas para la mejora de las habilidades de aprendizaje del habla me diante la incorporación de los principios del aprendizaje motor. Los escasos estudios de intervención en casos de sospecha de dispraxia verbal en la infancia temprana ofrecen resultados prometedores en diversos indicadores de evaluación del habla, y proporcionan a los profesio nales una información valiosa en la que fundamentar la intervención en esta población.
Abstract Introduction : The population of children with slow emergence of language development varies widely, both in their initial profile and in their response to interven tion. In this sense, there is a group of late talkers who continue to show persistent language difficulties, in some cases exhibiting signs compatible with verbal dyspraxia. Method : In this paper we present the different response to intervention of two profiles of late talk ers. Specifically, the Target Word© program (Hanen Centre) was implemented, which is addressed to late-talking children and their families. It combines the technique of focused stimulation with guidance to parents on strategies that stimulate global language development. Results : Much of the symptomatology shown in one case of poor progress coincides with retrospective de scriptions of children subsequently diagnosed with dyspraxia and can be considered early indicators of the disorder: unintelligibility, reduced consonant inventory or difficulties in word repetition. Discussion : The different response to intervention contributes to diagnostic decision making and the early implementation of specific strategies directed to improve speech learning skills by incorporating motor learning principles. The few studies of intervention in suspected verbal dyspraxia in early childhood offer promising re sults on a variety of speech assessment indicators, and provide practitioners with valuable information with which to support the intervention in this population.
Résumé
ABSTRACT Purpose Relational ability is a key attribute of language. Knowledge of relational terms, including spatial terms, can facilitate development of relational ability. Acquisition of spatial terms can be challenging and necessitates experience and input due to the abstractness of the concepts. Service delivery models for school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are changing from traditional "pull-out" therapy to intervention in the classroom. Response to Intervention (RtI) and multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) frameworks have expanded SLPs' roles to working with all children at-risk for academic difficulties. Methods Given the importance of spatial terms, and the changing roles and service delivery models for school-based SLPs, this investigation evaluated a six-week classroom-based intervention targeting spatial terms in a developmental kindergarten classroom of five-year-old children. Results At post-test, more than half of the children who did not understand the targeted spatial terms at pre-test demonstrated understanding of the words first, front, last, behind, center, below, under, and right by correctly identifying pictures representing these words. Around and left were the only two words learned by fewer than half of the children. Conclusion These findings augment research used by SLPs providing language support to children within the first tier of Response to Intervention or multi-tiered system of support.
Résumé
El presente trabajo busca contribuir a la comprensión de las dificultades en la adquisición de velocidad lectora en niños que crecen en contextos de pobreza. Se realizaron dos estudios: el primero se propuso comparar los perfiles cognitivos de niños con y sin dificultad en el desarrollo de la velocidad en el reconocimiento de palabras. Participaron 68 niños de 6to grado de zonas vulneradas del conurbano bonaerense: 22 niños presentaban adecuada precisión pero baja velocidad lectora y 46 niños conformaron el grupo de comparación, con niveles promedio de precisión y velocidad. A ambos grupos se les administraron pruebas de conciencia fonológica, denominación rápida, memoria verbal y escritura convencional. Exceptuando la prueba de memoria, en el resto de las pruebas el grupo con baja velocidad lectora presentó desempeños inferiores a los del grupo de comparación. El segundo estudio buscó explorar en qué medida una intervención pedagógica permitía mejorar la velocidad lectora. Para ello, los "lectores lentos" del Estudio 1 participaron de una situación pre-test-intervención para promover el desarrollo de la velocidad lectora vía formación de representaciones ortográficas-postest. Los resultados del Estudio 2 mostraron que la intervención con lecturas repetidas y aceleradas de palabras modificó significativamente el tiempo de lectura de las palabras de entrenamiento. Los datos también sugieren que el trabajo con unidades subléxicas en la intervención permitió transferir la velocidad ganada en las palabras de entrenamiento a palabras de transferencia, palabras no trabajadas en las sesiones, pero con unidades subléxicas incluidas en las palabras de entrenamiento.
Reading speed is achieved based on automatic word recognition and, together with prosody, constitutes an essential link between word recognition and text comprehension. Despite the relevance of reading speed acquisition for success at school, a high percentage of children growing up in poverty contexts face difficulties in achieving automatic word recognition. Consequently, this paper aims to contribute to the understanding of difficulties in reading speed acquisition in children growing in poverty contexts. Two studies were designed. In the first study, in order to explore the origin of difficulties in developing word reading speed, a comparison of the cognitive profiles of children from low-in-come backgrounds with and without difficulties in this ability was carried out. In a previous study, norms were obtained for accuracy and speed in a word reading test. Participants were 168 6th grade children from several educational institutions attending children growing up in poverty contexts in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the present study, the same word reading test was administered to 96 6th grade children. Based on the norms obtained in the previous study, two groups of children were identified: a group who performed at or above the 50th percentile in reading accuracy but below the 30th percentile in reading speed and another groupper forming at or above the 50th percentile in both measures. The first group was made up of 22 children, and the second one, of 46 children. The remaining 28 children were not included in the study because they performed below the 50th percentile in reading accuracy. Additional tests measuring phonological awareness, rapid naming, verbal memory and word spelling were administered to children in both groups. Between-groups comparisons in these tasks showed that children with speed acquisition difficulties underperformed the other group in the tests tapping phonological awareness, rapid naming and spelling. These results suggest that the children in the group experiencing reading difficulties were still using the phonological route for word recognition. The second study aimed to explore whether a specifically designed educational intervention could enable children with low reading speed from the previous study to increase their reading speed. Both groups of children (with and without reading speed difficulties) were administered two additional reading tests: an experimental test comprising target words which would subsequently be included in the training study for the children with reading speed difficulties; and a reading test of additional words and pseudo words not targeted in the training study, but considered transfer items because they comprised sub lexical units that were included in the target words to be trained during the intervention. These same reading tests were re-administered as a post-test, after the reading intervention for the reading speed difficulties group. The training study aimed to promote reading speed via the acquisition of orthographic representations. The intervention involved two weekly individual sessions lasting 20 minutes each. Each child participated of a total of 15 sessions. Each session included repeated and accelerated reading of lexical units, as well as activities for promoting the analysis of sublexical units included in the target words and also present in the transfer pseudo words from the post-test. The comparison between the pre- and post-test performance of the training group showed a statistically significant increase in reading speed both of trained and transfer words, an increase that was not obtained for the comparison group. This result suggests that during the intervention children were able to develop orthographic representations of the trained lexical units, but also of the sub lexical units that were present in both the target and the transfer words. Educational implications from this study point to the importance of repeated and accelerated reading for increasing speed, a critical reading ability.
Résumé
O presente estudo teve como objetivo a aplicação do modelo de Resposta à Intervenção (RTI) em uma turma do 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola pública. Participaram 22 crianças, com idades entre 10 e 11 anos. Foi realizada a adaptação da Camada 1 do modelo RTI, que visa a uma intervenção de caráter instrucional, preventivo, ofertada pelo professor a todos os alunos, por meio de estratégias com base em evidências científicas. Os participantes foram avaliados em três momentos: início, meio e final do ano escolar. Testes normatizados de leitura, escrita, aritmética, atenção e motivação foram aplicados a fim de avaliar o progresso das crianças. Além dos testes padronizados, avaliações qualitativas e contínuas foram feitas atendendo o critério de monitoramento prescrito no modelo de RTI. De forma geral, a análise dos resultados demonstrou que o desempenho dos alunos em leitura, escrita, atenção e aritmética obteve melhoras estatisticamente significativas, sendo possível também identificar os alunos com desempenho abaixo da média em relação a seus pares. Tal relato corrobora a eficácia da aplicação do modelo RTI também ao final do ciclo do Ensino Fundamental I.
The present study aims to narrate an experience of application of the Response to Intervention model in a 5th grade class of a Public Elementary School. Twenty-two children, aged 10 and 11, took part in this experience. We used an adaptation of tier 1 of the RTI model that aims for an instructional, preventive intervention, offered by the teacher to all students, through scientific based strategies. The study consisted in three moments of administration of standardized tests for reading, writing, numeracy, attention and motivation: at the beginning of the school year and at the end of the first and last semesters. Besides these tests, we made use of other types of continuous and qualitative assessment, meeting the criteria for monitoring prescribed in the RTI model. The analysis of progress in reading, writing, attention and numeracy showed statistically significant improvement. It is also possible to identify students with below-average performance relative to their peers. This report corroborates the effectiveness of the application of the RTI model also at the end of the Elementary School cycle.