The impact of computer-assisted technology on literacy acquisition during COVID-19-related school closures: Group-level effects and predictors of individual-level outcomes.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic led to school closure and loss of in-person instruction during the 2019-2020 academic year across the United States, which had a profound impact on the reading development of beginning readers. In this study we tested if a research-informed educational technology (EdTech) program-GraphoLearn-could help alleviate the COVID-19 slide. We also sought to understand the profiles of children who benefitted most from this EdTech program. Methods: We tested participants' (N = 172 K-2 children) early literacy skills using a standardized measure (STAR) before and after playing GraphoLearn, and used the pre to post difference as the dependent variable. We first compared children's STAR actual and expected growth. Then we conducted a multiple regression analysis with data about engagement with GraphoLearn included as predictors. Additional predictors were extracted from GraphoLearn performance at study onset to assess children's letter-sound knowledge, rime awareness, and word recognition. Results: The difference between actual average reading growth and expected growth in a regular school year was not statistically significant. This suggests that children in our sample seem to be gaining reading skills as expected in a regular school year. Our multiple linear regression model (which accounted for R2 = 48% of reading growth) showed that older children, with higher baseline GraphoLearn word recognition, who played more units in a fixed number of days, made significantly more early literacy progress. Discussion: While lacking a control group, our preliminary results suggest that an EdTech program such as GraphoLearn may be a useful reading instructional tool during school shutdowns. In addition, our results suggest that practice with GraphoLearn was more effective and efficient when foundational instruction was already in place.

Quantifying the regularities between orthography and semantics and their impact on group- and individual-level behavior.

Statistical views of reading highlight the link between proficient literacy and the assimilation of various regularities embedded in writing systems, including those in the mapping between print and meaning. Still, orthographic-semantic (O-S) regularities remain relatively understudied, with open questions regarding 3 issues: (a) how O-S regularities should be quantified, (b) how they impact the behavior of proficient readers, and (c) whether individual differences in sensitivity to these regularities predict reading skills. The goal of the current article is to address these questions. We start by reviewing previous studies estimating print-meaning regularities, where orthography-to-semantics consistency (OSC) is defined as the mean semantic similarity between a word and its orthographic neighbors. While we adopt this general strategy, we identify a potential confound in previous operational definitions. We therefore offer a modified measure, which we use to examine group-level OSC effects in available data sets of single word recognition and reading for comprehension. Our findings validate the existence of OSC effects but reveal variation across tasks, with OSC effects emerging more strongly in tasks involving a direct mapping of print to meaning. Next, we present a reanalysis of word naming data from 399 second through fifth graders, where we examine individual differences in reliance on O-S regularities and their relation to participants' reading skills. We show that early readers whose naming accuracy is more influenced by OSC (i.e., those who rely more on O-S) have better passage comprehension abilities. We conclude by discussing the role of O-S regularities in proficient reading and literacy acquisition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Unpacking the Unique Relationship Between Set for Variability and Word Reading Development: Examining Word- and Child-Level Predictors of Performance.

Set for variability (SfV) is an oral language task which requires an individual to disambiguate the mismatch between the decoded form of an irregular word and its actual lexical pronunciation. For example, in the task, the word wasp is pronounced to rhyme with clasp (i.e., /wæsp/) and the individual must recognize the actual pronunciation of the word to be /wɒsp/. SfV has been shown to be a significant predictor of both item-specific and general word reading variance above and beyond that associated with phonemic awareness skill, letter-sound knowledge, and vocabulary skill. However, very little is known about the child characteristics and word features that affect SfV item performance. In this study we explored whether word features and child characteristics that involve phonology only are adequate to explain item-level variance in SfV performance or whether including predictors that involve the connection between phonology and orthography explain additional variance. To accomplish this we administered the SfV task (N=75 items) to a sample of grade 2-5 children (N=489) along with a battery of reading, reading related, and language measures. Results suggest that variance in SfV performance is uniquely accounted for by measures tapping phonological skill along with those capturing knowledge of phonology to orthography associations, but more so in children with better decoding skill. Additionally, word reading skill was found to moderate the influence of other predictors suggesting that how the task is approached may be impacted by word reading and decoding ability.

Implementation of Data-Based Decision-Making: Linking Research From the Special Series to Practice.

The papers in the special series describe the role of data-based decision-making (DBDM) in improving the outcomes of students with learning disabilities based on research across Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. The articles address multiple aspects of a model of DBDM that includes the role of teacher knowledge, skills, beliefs, and sources of professional learning and the role of systems-level factors in improving student achievement. In this article, the conclusions of each paper are described in terms of that model. The papers illustrate that DBDM can improve achievement for students with learning disabilities through a DBDM process called data-based individualization (DBI)-especially if teachers have innovative supports (e.g., new technologies). For teachers, DBDM professional development (PD) can improve DBDM knowledge and implementation, but PD may not be adequate in all cases, with practical experience playing a central role. In addition, classroom-level DBDM may not translate to success for students with learning disabilities. Finally, the articles reveal a need to focus more on systems-level factors in successful DBDM systems like DBI-especially when implemented outside the experimental context. These findings provide a contemporary lens on DBDM as it related to students with learning disabilities and establish foci for future research.

Using an item-specific predictor to test the dimensionality of the orthographic choice task.

The orthographic choice (OC) task-requiring individuals to choose the correct spelling between a word and a pseudohomophone foil (e.g., goat vs. gote)-has been used as an outcome measure of orthographic learning and as a predictor of individual differences in word reading development. Some consider the OC task a measure of orthographic knowledge (e.g., Conrad, Harris, & Williams (Reading and Writing, 26(8), 1223-1239, 2013)), whereas others have suggested that the task measures a reader's familiarity with the word's orthographic representation and thus measures word reading skill (e.g., Castles & Nation, 2006). We examined this assertion by testing OC task performance of individuals ages 8 to 18 (J = 296) and their ability to read the OC target words (I = 80) in isolation using crossed random effects item-response models. Results reveal that response on the OC task is not fully determined by the ability of an individual to read the target word in isolation. Specifically, the probability of choosing the correct orthographic form when the word was pronounced incorrectly was .79; whereas it was .90 when the word was pronounced correctly. Measures of receptive spelling and phonemic awareness (person-characteristics) and word frequency and orthographic neighborhood size (item-characteristics) accounted for significant variance in orthographic choice after controlling for target item reading and other reading-related abilities. We interpret the results to suggest that the OC task taps both item-specific orthographic knowledge and more general orthographic knowledge.

Is "Response/No Response" Too Simple a Notion for RTI Frameworks? Exploring Multiple Response Types With Latent Profile Analysis.

We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a randomized control trial to explore this question: Does "response/no response" best characterize students' reactions to a generally efficacious first-grade reading program, or is a more nuanced characterization necessary? Data were collected on 265 at-risk readers' word reading prior to and immediately following program implementation in first grade and in spring of second grade. Pretreatment data were also obtained on domain-specific skills (letter knowledge, decoding, passage comprehension, language) and domain-general skills (working memory, non-verbal reasoning). Latent profile analysis of word reading across the three time points with controls as a local norm revealed a strongly responsive group (n = 45) with mean word-reading z scores of 0.25, 1.64, and 1.26 at the three time points, respectively; a mildly responsive group (n = 109), z scores = 0.30, 0.47, and 0.55; a mildly non-responsive group (n = 90), z scores = -0.11, -0.15, and -0.55; and a strongly non-responsive group (n = 21), z scores = -1.24, -1.26, and -1.57. The two responsive groups had stronger pretreatment letter knowledge and passage comprehension than the two non-responsive groups. The mildly non-responsive group demonstrated better pretreatment passage comprehension than the strongly non-responsive group. No domain-general skill distinguished the four groups. Findings suggest response to early reading intervention was more complicated than response/no response, and pretreatment reading comprehension was an important predictor of response even with pretreatment word reading controlled.

Sight word acquisition in first grade students at risk for reading disabilities: an item-level exploration of the number of exposures required for mastery.

The purpose of this study was to examine word learning efficiency in at-risk first grade students (N = 93) participating in a yearlong study evaluating a multicomponent intervention targeting word reading and decoding skills. As part of each intervention lesson, students participated in a 1 to 3-min sight word reading activity in which high-frequency words were read from a list until mastered, at which point the word dropped off the list. This study explored factors predicting the number of exposures required for item reading mastery (N = 145 words). Specifically, we explored how the number of word exposures required to reach mastery varied as a function of linguistic features of the words and cognitive characteristics of the students. Using item-level crossed-random effects models, we found students required an average of 5.65 exposures for mastery, with word features representing word length, vocabulary grade, and imageability being significant predictors of learning efficiency. We also found a significant interaction between pretest word reading skill and imageability of a word, with this semantic feature being especially important for the poorest readers. Results indicate that in the absence of typical word recognition skills, poor readers tend to rely on other sources of information to learn words, which tend to be related to the semantic features of words.

Using information-theoretic measures to characterize the structure of the writing system: the case of orthographic-phonological regularities in English.

It is generally well accepted that proficient reading requires the assimilation of myriad statistical regularities present in the writing system, including in particular the correspondences between words' orthographic and phonological forms. There is considerably less agreement, however, as to how to quantify these regularities. Here we present a comprehensive approach for this quantification using tools from Information Theory. We start by providing a glossary of the relevant information-theoretic metrics, with simplified examples showing their potential in assessing orthographic-phonological regularities. We specifically highlight the flexibility of our approach in quantifying information under different contexts (i.e., context-independent and dependent readings) and in different types of mappings (e.g., orthography-to-phonology and phonology-to-orthography). Then, we use these information-theoretic measures to assess real-world orthographic-phonological regularities of 10,093 mono-syllabic English words and examine whether these measures predict inter-item variability in accuracy and response times using available large-scale datasets of naming and lexical decision tasks. Together, the analyses demonstrate how information-theoretical measures can be used to quantify orthographical-phonological correspondences, and show that they capture variance in reading performance that is not accounted for by existing measures. We discuss the similarities and differences between the current framework and previous approaches as well as future directions towards understanding how the statistical regularities embedded in a writing system impact reading and reading acquisition.

Using Moderator Analysis to Identify the First-Grade Children Who Benefit More and Less from a Reading Comprehension Program: A Step Toward Aptitude-by-Treatment Interaction.

Because of the importance of teaching reading comprehension to struggling young readers and the infrequency with which it has been implemented and evaluated, we designed a comprehensive first-grade reading comprehension program. We conducted a component analysis of the program's decoding/fluency (DF) and reading comprehension (COMP) dimensions, creating DF and DF+COMP treatments to parse the value of COMP. Students (N = 125) were randomly assigned to the 2 active treatments and controls. Treatment children were tutored 3 times per week for 21 weeks in 45-min sessions. Children in DF and DF+COMP together performed more strongly than controls on word reading and comprehension. However, pretreatment word reading appeared to moderate these results such that children with weaker beginning word reading across the treatments outperformed similarly low-performing controls to a significantly greater extent than treatment children with stronger beginning word reading outperformed comparable controls. DF+COMP children did not perform better than DF children. Study limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Trajectories and Predictors of Word Reading and Reading Comprehension Development Among At-Risk Readers.

This study explored the developmental trajectories and predictors of word reading and reading comprehension among young at-risk readers. In fall of first grade, 185 students identified as at-risk for reading difficulties were assessed on measures of domain-specific skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and vocabulary), domain-general skills (working memory, nonverbal reasoning, and processing speed), and word reading and reading comprehension. Word reading and reading comprehension were assessed again in spring of grades 1-4. Individual growth curve modeling showed that the children demonstrated decelerated growth on word reading and linear growth on reading comprehension, although their performance on both word reading and reading comprehension were consistently below average on national norms. After controlling for word reading and reading comprehension in first grade, letter knowledge predicted growth in word reading; vocabulary and nonverbal reasoning predicted growth in reading comprehension. That is, we found different developmental trajectories and different predictors for word reading and reading comprehension among our at-risk sample. Implications are discussed for theory and early reading instruction for at-risk children.

Why Children With Dyslexia Struggle With Writing and How to Help Them.

Purpose: Children with dyslexia often have related writing difficulties. In the simple view of writing model, high-quality writing depends on good transcription skills, working memory, and executive function-all of which can be difficult for children with dyslexia and result in poor spelling and low overall writing quality. In this article, we describe the challenges of children with dyslexia in terms of the simple view of writing and instructional strategies to increase spelling and overall writing quality in children with dyslexia. Method: For spelling strategies, we conducted systematic searches across 2 databases for studies examining the effectiveness of spelling interventions for students with dyslexia as well as including studies from 2 meta-analyses. To locate other instructional practices to increase writing quality (e.g., handwriting and executive function), we examined recent meta-analyses of writing and supplemented that by conducting forward searches. Results: Through the search, we found evidence of effective remedial and compensatory intervention strategies in spelling, transcription, executive function, and working memory. Some strategies included spelling using sound-spellings and morphemes and overall quality using text structure, sentence combining, and self-regulated strategy development. Conclusions: Many students with dyslexia experience writing difficulty in multiple areas. However, their writing (and even reading) skills can improve with the instructional strategies identified in this article. We describe instructional procedures and provide links to resources throughout the article.

Modeling Polymorphemic Word Recognition: Exploring Differences Among Children With Early-Emerging and Late-Emerging Word Reading Difficulty.

Comprehensive models of derived polymorphemic word recognition skill in developing readers, with an emphasis on children with reading difficulty (RD), have not been developed. The purpose of the present study was to model individual differences in polymorphemic word recognition ability at the item level among 5th-grade children (N = 173) oversampled for children with RD using item-response crossed random-effects models. We distinguish between two subtypes of RD children with word recognition problems, those with early-emerging RD and late-emerging RD. An extensive set of predictors representing item-specific knowledge, child-level characteristics, and word-level characteristics were used to predict item-level variance in polymorphemic word recognition. Results indicate that item-specific root word recognition and word familiarity; child-level RD status, morphological awareness, and orthographic choice; word-level frequency and root word family size; and the interactions between morphological awareness and RD status and root word recognition and root transparency predicted individual differences in polymorphemic word recognition item performance. Results are interpreted within a multisource individual difference model of polymorphemic word recognition skill spanning item-specific, child-level, and word-level knowledge.

Behavioral Attention: A Longitudinal Study of Whether and How It Influences the Development of Word Reading and Reading Comprehension among At-Risk Readers.

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which teacher ratings of behavioral attention predicted responsiveness to word reading instruction in first grade and third-grade reading comprehension performance. Participants were 110 first grade students identified as at-risk for reading difficulties who received 20 weeks of intensive reading intervention in combination with classroom reading instruction. Path analysis indicated that teacher ratings of student attention significantly predicted students' word reading growth in first grade even when they were competed against other relevant predictors (phonological awareness, nonword reading, sight word efficiency, vocabulary, listening comprehension, hyperactivity, nonverbal reasoning, and short term memory). Also, student attention demonstrated a significant indirect effect on third grade reading comprehension via word reading, but not via listening comprehension. Results suggest that student attention (indexed by teacher ratings) is an important predictor of at-risk readers' responsiveness to reading instruction in first grade and that first-grade reading growth mediates the relationship between students' attention and their future level of reading comprehension. The importance of considering ways to manage and improve behavioral attention when implementing reading instruction is discussed.

Multisyllabic word reading as a moderator of morphological awareness and reading comprehension.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the relation between morphological awareness on reading comprehension is moderated by multisyllabic word reading ability in fifth-grade students (N = 169, 53.7% female, 65.2% minority status, 69.2% free/reduced lunch status), oversampled for poor reading skill, when controlling for general knowledge and vocabulary. Based on the lexical quality hypothesis, it was expected that morphological awareness would have a stronger effect on comprehension for children with poor word reading skills, suggesting possible use of morphological awareness for word identification support. Results indicated that neither morphological awareness nor word reading was uniquely associated with reading comprehension when both were included in the model along with vocabulary and general knowledge. Instead, the interaction between word reading and morphological awareness explained significant additional variance in reading comprehension. By probing this interaction, it was determined that the effect of morphological awareness on reading comprehension was significant for the 39% of the sample that had more difficulty reading multisyllabic words but not for students at the higher end of the multisyllabic word reading continuum. We conclude from these results that the relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension is moderated by multisyllabic word reading ability, providing support for the lexical quality hypothesis. Although we have only correlational data, we suggest tentative instructional practices for improving the reading skill of upper elementary struggling readers.

Ceramide mediates vascular dysfunction in diet-induced obesity by PP2A-mediated dephosphorylation of the eNOS-Akt complex.

Vascular dysfunction that accompanies obesity and insulin resistance may be mediated by lipid metabolites. We sought to determine if vascular ceramide leads to arterial dysfunction and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Pharmacological inhibition of de novo ceramide synthesis, using the Ser palmitoyl transferase inhibitor myriocin, and heterozygous deletion of dihydroceramide desaturase prevented vascular dysfunction and hypertension in mice after high-fat feeding. These findings were recapitulated in isolated arteries in vitro, confirming that ceramide impairs endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation in a tissue-autonomous manner. Studies in endothelial cells reveal that de novo ceramide biosynthesis induced protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) association directly with the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)/Akt/Hsp90 complex that was concurrent with decreased basal and agonist-stimulated eNOS phosphorylation. PP2A attenuates eNOS phosphorylation by preventing phosphorylation of the pool of Akt that colocalizes with eNOS and by dephosphorylating eNOS. Ceramide decreased the association between PP2A and the predominantly cytosolic inhibitor 2 of PP2A. We conclude that ceramide mediates obesity-related vascular dysfunction by a mechanism that involves PP2A-mediated disruption of the eNOS/Akt/Hsp90 signaling complex. These results provide important insight into a pathway that represents a novel target for reversing obesity-related vascular dysfunction.

Word and Person Effects on Decoding Accuracy: A New Look at an Old Question.

The purpose of this study was to extend the literature on decoding by bringing together two lines of research, namely person and word factors that affect decoding, using a crossed random-effects model. The sample was comprised of 196 English-speaking grade 1 students. A researcher-developed pseudoword list was used as the primary outcome measure. Because grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) knowledge was treated as person and word specific, we are able to conclude that it is neither necessary nor sufficient for a student to know all GPCs in a word before accurately decoding the word. And controlling for word-specific GPC knowledge, students with lower phonemic awareness and slower rapid naming skill have lower predicted probabilities of correct decoding than counterparts with superior skills. By assessing a person-by-word interaction, we found that students with lower phonemic awareness have more difficulty applying knowledge of complex vowel graphemes compared to complex consonant graphemes when decoding unfamiliar words. Implications of the methodology and results are discussed in light of future research.

On the importance of a cognitive processing perspective: an introduction.

Children with learning problems require early intervention. If it is evidence based and implemented with integrity and intensity, it will accelerate the academic progress of many students. This is the hope and expectation of the many supporters of responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI). A minority of children, however, will not respond sufficiently to such intervention because of learning disorders like specific learning disabilities (SLD). Some RTI models do not include research-backed methods to identify these children, nor do RTI practitioners often produce the data necessary to develop individualized instruction for them. The authors suggest practitioners go beyond typical RTI assessment data documenting responsiveness/ unresponsiveness to conduct comprehensive evaluations of these most difficult-to-teach students and to include in their evaluations carefully chosen cognitive measures. This special issue presents the work of teams of researchers, which suggests that cognitive and neuropsychological assessments can provide information to further understand SLD, which in turn can guide development of promising interventions.

Fasting-induced reductions in cardiovascular and metabolic variables occur sooner in obese versus lean mice.

It is not uncommon for laboratory animals to be fasted prior to experimentation. Fasting evokes marked reductions in heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), heat production and oxygen consumption (VO(2)) in rodents. Mice with diet-induced obesity exhibit elevated HR and BP, and lower VO(2) and heat production in the fed condition versus their lean counterparts. It is unknown whether body composition alters the tempo of response to fasting. We tested the hypothesis that cardiovascular and metabolic responses to fasting are delayed in obese versus lean male C57BL/6J mice. In the fed condition, mice that consumed high-fat (HF, 45% fat) chow for 98 ± 5 days had elevated (P < 0.05) body fat percentage (DEXA), serum leptin (ELISA), HR and BP (72-h biotelemetry), and lower (P < 0.05) heat production and VO(2) (72-h metabolic chamber) versus animals that consumed standard chow (CON, 10% fat; n = 16 per group). HR, BP, VO(2), heat production and serum leptin decreased (all P < 0.05) in response to a 16-h fast (16:00-08:00 h) in both groups. Although the overall fold changes in cardiovascular and metabolic parameters were similar in magnitude among animals, fasting-induced reductions in cardiovascular and metabolic variables occurred ∼4 and ∼7 h earlier (P < 0.05), respectively, in HF versus CON mice. These findings indicate that while metabolic and cardiovascular stress evoked by a 16-h fast at 22°C is not different between HF and CON mice, fasting-induced responses occur sooner in obese animals.