Developmental trends and precursors of English spelling in Chinese children who learn English-as-a-second language: Comparisons between average and at-risk spellers.

BACKGROUND: Invented spelling has been viewed as a window to young children's spelling development. AIMS: This longitudinal study investigated the developmental trends in invented spelling as a function of phoneme position in very young ESL children. It also investigated cognitive-linguistic precursors of L2 spelling difficulties. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: We identified 2 groups of spellers in kindergarten based on their invented spelling performances at the end of kindergarten: average spellers and at-risk spellers. The two groups were compared on invented spelling performance at varied phoneme positions of a word. They were also administered a battery of cognitive-linguistic tasks, including letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, vocabulary and rapid automatized naming at an earlier timepoint. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Both groups performed better in invented spelling on initial consonants than on medial vowels, which in turn were better than final consonants at two time points. In addition, the average spellers improved significantly more than the at-risk spellers at all phoneme positions. Vocabulary was a significant predictor of spelling difficulties when other crucial cognitive-linguistic variables were taken into consideration simultaneously. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The current findings suggest the unique features of invented spelling development in L2 learners and identified precursors to L2 spelling difficulties. Very young average and at-risk L2 spellers showed differential gains in L2 invented spelling. Implications of the present study are (1) invented spelling at kindergarten is able to differentiate average and at-risk spellers and (2) invented spelling training and vocabulary intervention could be useful in the remediation of spelling difficulties.

The Visual Word Form Area remains in the dominant hemisphere for language in late-onset left occipital lobe epilepsies: A postsurgery analysis of two cases.

Automatic recognition of words from letter strings is a critical processing step in reading that is lateralized to the left-hemisphere middle fusiform gyrus in the so-called Visual Word Form Area (VWFA). Surgical lesions in this location can lead to irreversible alexia. Very early left hemispheric lesions can lead to transfer of the VWFA to the nondominant hemisphere, but it is currently unknown if this capability is preserved in epilepsies developing after reading acquisition. In this study, we aimed to determine the lateralization of the VWFA in late-onset left inferior occipital lobe epilepsies and also the effect of surgical disconnection from the adjacent secondary visual areas. Two patients with focal epilepsies with onset near the VWFA underwent to surgery for epilepsy, with sparing of this area. Neuropsychology evaluations were performed before and after surgery, as well as quantitative evaluation of the speed of word reading. Comparison of the surgical localization of the lesion, with the BOLD activation associated with the contrast of words-strings, was performed, as well as a study of the associated main white fiber pathways using diffusion-weighted imaging. Neither of the patients developed alexia after surgery (similar word reading speed before and after surgery) despite the fact that the inferior occipital surgical lesions reached the neighborhood (less than 1cm) of the VWFA. Surgeries partly disconnected the VWFA from left secondary visual areas, suggesting that pathways connecting to the posterior visual ventral stream were severely affected but did not induce alexia. The anterior and superior limits of the resection suggest that the critical connection between the VWFA and the Wernicke's Angular Gyrus cortex was not affected, which is supported by the detection of this tract with probabilistic tractography. Left occipital lobe epilepsies developing after reading acquisition did not produce atypical localizations of the VWFA, even with foci in the close neighborhood. Surgery for occipital lobe epilepsy should take this into consideration, as well as the fact that disconnection from the left secondary visual areas may not produce alexia.

Feasibility and efficacy of a computer-based intervention aimed at preventing reading decoding deficits among children undergoing active treatment for medulloblastoma: results of a randomized trial.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the feasibility of a computer-based reading intervention completed by patients diagnosed with a brain tumor. METHODS: Patients were randomized to the intervention (n = 43) or standard of care group (n = 38). The intervention consisted of 30 sessions using Fast ForWord® exercises in a game-like format. Change in reading decoding scores over time since diagnosis was examined. Gender, race, parent education, parent marital status, and age at diagnosis were examined as covariates. RESULTS: 17 patients (39.5%) were able to complete the target goal of 30 intervention sessions. Females had significantly greater training time than males (p = .022). Age at diagnosis was associated with average training time/session for females (r = .485, p = .041). No significant differences were found in reading scores between the randomized groups. CONCLUSIONS: The study was well accepted by families and adherence by patients undergoing radiation therapy for medulloblastoma was moderate. Suggestions for improved methodology are discussed.