Statistical relationships between surface form and sensory meanings of English words influence lexical processing.

Across spoken languages, there are some words whose acoustic features resemble the meanings of their referents by evoking perceptual imagery, i.e., they are iconic (e.g., in English, "splash" imitates the sound of an object hitting water). While these sound symbolic form-meaning relationships are well-studied, relatively little work has explored whether the sensory properties of English words also involve systematic (i.e., statistical) form-meaning mappings. We first test the prediction that surface form properties can predict sensory experience ratings for over 5,000 monosyllabic and disyllabic words (Juhasz & Yap, 2013), confirming they explain a significant proportion of variance. Next, we show that iconicity and sensory form typicality, a statistical measure of how well a word's form aligns with its sensory experience rating, are only weakly related to each other, indicating they are likely to be distinct constructs. To determine whether form typicality influences processing of sensory words, we conducted regression analyses using lexical decision, word recognition, naming and semantic decision tasks from behavioral megastudy data sets. Across the data sets, sensory form typicality was able to predict more variance in performance than sensory experience or iconicity ratings. Further, the effects of typicality were consistently inhibitory in comprehension (i.e., more typical forms were responded to more slowly and less accurately), whereas for production the effect was facilitatory. These findings are the first evidence that systematic form-meaning mappings in English sensory words influence their processing. We discuss how language processing models incorporating Bayesian prediction mechanisms might be able to account for form typicality in the lexicon. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Social and joint attention during shared book reading in young autistic children: a potential marker for social development.

BACKGROUND: Atypical patterns of social engagement and joint attention behaviors are diagnostic criteria for people with autism spectrum disorder. Experimental tasks using eye-tracking methodologies have, however, shown inconsistent results. The development of tasks with greater ecological validity and relevance for developmentally appropriate social milestones has been identified as important for the field. METHODS: We developed a novel, dynamic eye-tracking task emulating a shared book reading (SBR) scenario. Four SBR videos of an adult reader engaging with the viewer while reading a children's picture book and including sequenced bids for joint attention were developed. Participants included 90 children (N = 56 autistic children, N = 34 neurotypical children; aged 3-12). Social attention was also measured in a live free play task between participants and an experimenter. RESULTS: Compared to neurotypical children, autistic children displayed reduced attention to socially salient stimuli including the reader's face and picture book across SBR videos and during joint attention bids specifically. In contrast, they showed increased attention to nonsalient background stimuli compared to their neurotypical peers. These attention patterns in autistic children were associated with reduced verbal and nonverbal cognitive skills and increased symptoms associated with autism. Interestingly, positive correlations in the frequency of eye gaze between SBR and free play suggested a potential predictive value for social attention in live social interactions. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the utility of SBR eye-tracking tasks in understanding underlying divergences in social engagement and joint attention between autistic and neurotypical children. This commonly practiced early childhood activity may provide insights into the relationship between social engagement and learning to reveal how such attentional patterns might influence broader developmental and educational outcomes.

Self-Harm Among 17-Year-Old Adolescents With/Without Disabilities in the United Kingdom.

Background: Self-harm is a critical public health issue for adolescents/young adults. Aims: To estimate the prevalence of self-harm among adolescents with/without disabilities in the United Kingdom. Method: Secondary analysis of data collected at age 17 in the UK's Millennium Cohort Study. Results: Prevalence of self-harm was significantly greater among adolescents with disabilities for suicide attempts and six forms of self-harming behaviors. The lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts was 5.3% (4.5-6.3) among adolescents without disabilities, 21.9% (18.2-26.2) among adolescents with less limiting disabilities, and 25.5% (17.2-35.9) among adolescents with more limiting disabilities. Adjusted prevalence rate ratios ranged from 5.13 (3.58-7.36) for those with mental health limitations to 1.48 (0.65-3.35) for those with mobility limitations. Similar patterns were observed for the 12-month prevalence of six self-harming behaviors. Limitations: Further studies are needed to identify potential mediators of the association between disability and self-harm that are potentially modifiable. Conclusion: Adolescents with disabilities are at markedly greater probability of suicide attempts and self-harming behaviors than their peers.

Non-arbitrary mappings between size and sound of English words: Form typicality effects during lexical access and memory.

A century of research has provided evidence of limited size sound symbolism in English, that is, certain vowels are non-arbitrarily associated with words denoting small versus large referents (e.g., /i/ as in teensy and /ɑ/ as in tall). In the present study, we investigated more extensive statistical regularities between surface form properties of English words and ratings of their semantic size, that is, form typicality, and its impact on language and memory processing. Our findings provide the first evidence of significant word form typicality for semantic size. In five empirical studies using behavioural megastudy data sets of performance on written and auditory lexical decision, reading aloud, semantic decision, and recognition memory tasks, we show that form typicality for size is a stronger and more consistent predictor of lexical access during word comprehension and production than semantic size, in addition to playing a significant role in verbal memory. The empirical results demonstrate that statistical information about non-arbitrary form-size mappings is accessed automatically during language and verbal memory processing, unlike semantic size that is largely dependent on task contexts that explicitly require participants to access size knowledge. We discuss how a priori knowledge about non-arbitrary form-meaning associations in the lexicon might be incorporated in models of language processing that implement Bayesian statistical inference.

Emotion from the sound of a word: Statistical relationships between surface form and valence of English words influence lexical access and memory.

It is generally accepted that a word's emotional valence (i.e., whether a word is perceived as positive, negative, or neutral) influences how it is accessed and remembered. There is also evidence that the affective content of some words is represented in nonarbitrary sound-meaning associations (i.e., emotional sound symbolism). We investigated whether more extensive statistical relationships exist between the surface form properties of English words and ratings of their emotional valence, that is, form typicality. We found significant form typicality for both valence and extremity of valence (the absolute distance from the midpoint of the rating scale, regardless of polarity). Next, using behavioral megastudy data sets, we show that measures of emotional form typicality are significant predictors of lexical access during written and auditory lexical decision and reading aloud tasks in addition to recognition memory performance. These findings show nonarbitrary form-valence mappings in English are accessed automatically during language and verbal memory processing. We discuss how these findings might be incorporated into theoretical accounts that implement Bayesian statistical inference. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A meta-analysis on the correlations between statistical learning, language, and reading outcomes.

The purpose of this meta-analytic review is to investigate the relation between statistical learning (SL) and language-related outcomes, and between SL and reading-related outcomes. A comprehensive search of peer-reviewed published research resulted in 42 articles with 53 independent samples and 201 reported effect sizes (Pearson's r). Results of our robust variance estimation correlated effects model revealed a significant, moderate relation between SL and language-related outcomes, r = .236, p < .001, and a significant, moderate relation between SL and reading-related outcomes, r = .239, p < .001. Moreover, age, the writing system of the language, and SL paradigm moderate the strength of the association between SL and reading. Age is the only significant moderator on the strength of the association between SL and language. The findings from this meta-analysis shed light on the contribution of multiple factors that impact how SL relates to language and reading outcomes, with important implications for developing effective instructional practices that emphasize statistical regularities of oral and written materials in the classroom. Theoretical implications of these findings for language and reading development are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Associations between sleep, reading, and mathematics in Taiwanese children.

BACKGROUND: Some research shows a link between sleep behaviours and school achievement in English-speaking children and adolescents. AIMS: The current study aimed to examine the relationship between children's sleep behaviours and aspects of their school achievement in Mandarin-speaking children who are living in Taiwan. SAMPLE: The present study reports on 69 second-grade children (age range = 6.84-8.4 years) recruited in Taipei City, Taiwan. METHODS: Children's sleep behaviours were assessed through two standardized parent self-report questionnaires: the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) and the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC). Children undertook three standardized tests of word reading, reading comprehension and math. RESULTS: Key findings include: (i) sleep disturbances are more prevalent when using the CSHQ scale than the SDSC scale, (ii) around half of second graders struggle with general sleep disturbances as observed by the CSHQ scale, (iii) children who go to bed before 22:00 and have at least 9-h sleep tend to exhibit fewer sleep disturbances, (iv) parasomnias as measured by the CSHQ are negatively correlated with reading comprehension after controlling age and nonverbal IQ, and (v) the amount of sleep (naps) during daytime is negatively correlated with Chinese character recognition, reading comprehension and math after controlling age and nonverbal IQ. CONCLUSIONS: There is growing awareness of the value of research that spans culturally and linguistically diverse populations. Our study contributes to ongoing discussions about the relationship between sleep, and skills in reading and math in school-aged children in Taiwan.

On the roles of form systematicity and sensorimotor effects in language processing.

Grounded or embodied cognition research has employed body-object interaction (BOI; e.g., Pexman et al., 2019) ratings to investigate sensorimotor effects during language processing. We investigated relationships between BOI ratings and nonarbitrary statistical mappings between words' phonological forms and their syntactic category in English; i.e., form systematicity. In Study 1, principal components analysis revealed that BOI and form systematicity measures load on a common component, indicating they convey similar information about the probability of a word belonging to a particular syntactic category. In Studies 2, 3, and 4, form systematicity measures were stronger predictors of English Lexicon Project (ELP; Balota et al., 2007), Auditory English Lexicon Project (AELP; Goh et al., 2020), and English Crowdsourcing Project (ECP; Mandera et al., 2020) performance than BOI. In Study 5, BOI was a stronger predictor of performance from the Calgary Semantic Decision Project (CSDP; Pexman et al., 2017) than form systematicity. In Study 6, only form systematicity significantly predicted performance from the LinguaPix object naming megastudy (Krautz & Keuleers, 2022). Together, these results demonstrate that nonarbitrary statistical relationships in the form of mappings between ortho-phonological information and meaning are accessed automatically during language processing; i.e., even when syntactic category is not relevant to the task, and that sensorimotor simulation mechanisms are only strongly engaged when explicitly demanded by the task. We discuss the implications of these findings for proposals of embodied or grounded cognition and interpretations of neuroimaging data from word recognition tasks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

ABRACADABRA literacy instruction for children with Down syndrome via telepractice during COVID-19: A pilot study.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has resulted in some educators and allied health practitioners transitioning to online delivery of literacy instruction. As far as we are aware, no studies have investigated online delivery of comprehensive literacy instruction for children with Down syndrome. AIMS: In this pilot study, we explore the efficacy of online delivery of ABRACADABRA (a free literacy web application) for children with Down syndrome, alongside supplementary parent-led shared book reading, during the COVID-19 pandemic. SAMPLE: Six children with Down syndrome, aged 8-12 years, participated in this within-participants design study. METHODS: Participants acted as their own controls with outcome variables measured at three timepoints: baseline, pre-instruction and post-instruction. Children participated in 16-18 hrs of one-to-one literacy instruction online over a 6-week instruction phase, along with twice weekly parent-led shared book reading activities. RESULTS: Outcomes from standardized assessments revealed statistically significant improvements in word- and passage-level reading accuracy skills over the instruction phase (pre-instruction to post-instruction) compared with the no-instruction control phase (baseline to pre-instruction). Improvements in reading comprehension skills were inconsistent across assessment measures and statistical analyses. CONCLUSION: Children with Down syndrome can benefit from comprehensive literacy instruction delivered via telepractice. Our study provides critical initial evidence of successful service delivery during a global pandemic and beyond.

Exploring the Effects of Literacy Instruction for Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review.

PURPOSE: Some children with cerebral palsy (CP) have difficulty acquiring conventional reading and writing skills. This systematic review explores the different types of literacy instruction and their effects on the reading and writing skills of children with CP. METHOD: Relevant studies published between 2000 and 2020 were identified using electronic databases and terms related to CP and literacy. Data on participant characteristics, instruction characteristics, and instruction outcomes were extracted. A standardized measure of effect size was used to quantify reported treatment effects. RESULTS: The systematic search identified 2,970 potentially relevant studies, of which 24 met inclusion criteria. These studies included 66 children with CP aged 5-18 years. One of the included studies utilized a group research design, whereas the remaining used single-subject designs. Studies investigated literacy instruction methods designed to teach phonics, sight-word recognition, reading fluency, reading comprehension, spelling, or written expression skills, or multicomponent instruction (instruction methods encompassing three or more of these skills). Most instruction methods were associated with gains in reading and writing skills with medium to large effects; however, our analysis of methodological rigor suggests that these findings need to be interpreted with caution. CONCLUSIONS: We propose that literacy instruction utilizing evidence-based principles can be effective for children with CP, provided instruction is accessible and allows children to demonstrate and receive feedback on their skills; however, further research is greatly needed. Clinical implications and priorities for future research are discussed. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21357558.

Embedding research codesign knowledge and practice: Learnings from researchers in a new research institute in Australia.

BACKGROUND: Research codesign is generally defined as end-users' involvement in planning, implementation, and evaluation of projects. Recently, there has been a growing interest in codesign to maximise research acceptability, applicability, and impact and to address longstanding issues around power and depth of involvement. Frameworks have been developed to assist in understanding research codesign processes at a project level. However, little is known about how university based researchers construct or adopt a coherent approach to sustain research codesign in governance, methodological approaches, and practice. This study investigated the perspectives of researchers within a newly formed research institute about principles and practices of research codesign in the context of their previous and current projects. We also investigated their perceptions of institution-level enablers and barriers to codesign. University based researchers are our primary focus here and we intend to consult other stakeholders in future work. METHODS: Using an interview guide informed by exploratory work and a scoping review of the literature, we conducted 15 individual interviews with Caring Futures Institute (CFI) leaders and researchers at different career stages working across multiple areas of health, care, and social research. Qualitative thematic analysis was conducted. RESULTS: The researchers we interviewed were involved in projects ranging from large nationally funded projects to small studies funded by the university or PhD projects. Research codesign activities were generally part of larger researcher-led projects but there were a few examples of community-led projects. There was agreement amongst participants on the principles and perceived benefits of research codesign such as partnership, co-learning, and power sharing. Less agreement was found regarding the definition of research codesign and best terminology to be used. Themes reflecting the success of research codesign included pre-existing community relationships, communication skills, knowledge, and training on codesign, balancing power relationships, use of external facilitators, and adequacy of funding, time, and resources. CONCLUSIONS: The study reaffirmed the complexity of research codesign from researchers' perspectives and identified areas of potential action that may be beneficial for university based research institutions in building codesign skills, capacity and culture for example training, peer learning and funding support. Implications for practice improvement centre on a dual strategy of building practical capacity in researchers and integrating institutional dimensions (such as governance and leadership) into codesign frameworks. This can help to ensure research codesign is integrated into organisational culture and through the work of individual researchers.

Involving people and groups with lived experience in research is important to ensure that research is useful and makes real changes in peoples' lives. Codesign centres on researching with people rather than about people. For true engagement and codesign to occur, university based researchers need to understand why codesign is valuable and need to be trained and supported in using effective methods for the individuals and groups they work with. University based research institutes with missions to improve peoples' experiences of services need to embrace principles and practices of codesign and support their researchers to achieve this. They need to make sure there are appropriate governance structures and support systems that encourage people to codesign in their research. This study focussed on university based researchers as a key stakeholder group for effective codesign. These researchers work in an Australian research institute (Flinders Caring Futures Institute). They shared information about the kinds of codesign they did in their research projects, and the things that helped and other things that made it hard to utilise codesign in their research. We also asked the researchers about how research institutions could better support codesign practices. Researchers in our study shared their views that codesign is a complex process. Building relationships and trust as part of research codesign needs time and resources. Researchers had ideas about how to improve codesign as a practice in research institutes. These include providing formal and informal training, opportunities to share experiences, peer support and learning, making sure there are community representatives involved in the leadership of research organisations, and increased funding support for codesign.

How is vowel production in Italian affected by geminate consonants and stress patterns?

Italian vowels have a shorter duration before a geminate than before a singleton consonant, but a longer duration in syllables carrying stress. We asked whether children can produce the differentiation in vowel duration in singleton/geminate contexts reported for adults and whether their production changes depending on position of primary stress. Italian children (three-to-six-year-olds) and adults performed a nonword repetition. Each nonword appeared in four contexts, with the stressed/unstressed vowel preceding/following the singleton/geminate: /pa'paso/, /pap'paso/, 'papaso/, /'pappaso/. Acoustic analyses on the duration of the vowel preceding (V1) and following (V2) the medial consonant showed a type of consonant by age group interaction: the difference in vowel duration between children and adults was greater for geminate than singleton contexts, and was greater when the vowel carried stress. When V1 carried stress, its duration was shorter in the geminate than in the singleton in adults and older children, not in younger children.

Do age and language impairment affect speed of recognition for words with high and low closeness centrality within the phonological network?

Purpose: Speed and accuracy of lexical access change with healthy ageing and neurodegeneration. While a word's immediate phonological neighbourhood density (i.e. words differing by a single phoneme) influences access, connectivity to all words in the phonological network (i.e. closeness centrality) may influence processing. This study aimed to investigate the effect of closeness centrality on speed and accuracy of lexical processing pre- and post- a single word-training session in healthy younger and older adults, and adults with logopenic primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA), which affects phonological processing.Method: Participants included 29 young and 17 older healthy controls, and 10 adults with lvPPA. Participants received one session of word-training on words with high or low closeness centrality, using a picture-word verification task. Changes in lexical decision reaction times (RT) and accuracy were measured.Result: Baseline RT was unaffected by age and accuracy was at ceiling for controls. Post-training, only young adults' RT were significantly faster. Adults with lvPPA were slower and less accurate than controls at baseline, with no training effect. Closeness centrality did not influence performance.Conclusion: Absence of training effect for older adults suggests higher threshold to induce priming, possibly associated with insufficient dosage or fatigue. Implications for word-finding interventions with older adults are discussed.

A trial of online ABRACADABRA literacy instruction with supplementary parent-led shared book reading for children with autism.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for accessible support for children with developmental disabilities. This study explored online literacy instruction with supplementary parent-led shared book reading (SBR) for children with autism. METHODS: Twenty-one children with autism (5-12 years) completed a battery of assessments (T1) before being assigned to ability matched Instruction (n = 10) and Control groups (n = 11). Instruction group participants completed 16 h of ABRACADABRA instruction working with a researcher 1:1 online and SBR activities at home with a parent over 8 weeks. All participants were reassessed after the instruction period (T2) and parents of children in the Instruction group were interviewed regarding their views and experiences. RESULTS: Quantitative analyses showed no significant improvements in reading for Instruction group children relative to Control group children. However, each child successfully participated in 16 online instruction sessions and qualitative data revealed that parents were generally positive about the program, with some observing improvements in their child's literacy skills and reading confidence. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: While it appears children with autism can participate in online literacy instruction, sixteen hours of online ABRACADABRA instruction with parent-led SBR may not be effective in improving their reading skills. Further research is required to explore whether more intensive and/or extended online instruction may be feasible and effective, and to improve uptake of parent-led book reading activities at home.

Towards a unifying caring life-course theory for better self-care and caring solutions: A discussion paper.

AIM: To present the first iteration of the caring life-course theory. BACKGROUND: Despite requiring care from birth to death, a person's universal or fundamental care needs and the subsequent care provision, either by self or others, has yet to be presented within a life-course perspective. Accurately describing the care people require across their lifespan enables us to identify who, what type, how and where this care should be provided. This novel perspective can help to legitimise a person's care needs and the support they require from wider care systems and contexts. DESIGN: Discussion paper outlines theory development. We adopted an inductive approach to theory development, drawing upon existing literature and the team's diverse experiences. Our theoretical insights were refined through a series of collaborative meetings to define the theory's constructs, until theoretical saturation was reached. DISCUSSION: Fourteen constructs are identified as essential to the theory. We propose it is possible, using these constructs, to generate caring life-course trajectories and predict divergences in these trajectories. The novel contribution of the theory is the interplay between understanding a person's care needs and provision within the context of their lifespan and personal histories, termed their care biography, and understanding a person's care needs and provision at specific points in time within a given care network and socio-political context. IMPACT FOR NURSING: The caring life-course theory can provide a roadmap to inform nursing and other care industry sectors, providing opportunities to integrate and deliver care from the perspective of the person and their care history, trajectories and networks, with those of professional care teams. It can help to shape health, social and economic policy and involve individuals, families and communities in more constructive ways of talking about the importance of care for improved quality of life and healthy societies.

Literacy instruction for autistic children who speak languages other than English.

LAY ABSTRACT: Many autistic children across the globe speak languages other than English. However, much of the research about teaching children with autism to read and write is derived from studies including people who speak English and no other languages. Here, we review the research on teaching children with autism to read and write in languages other than English. We did this because the world's languages, and the ways they are represented in written form, vary greatly. A broader overview that encompasses languages other than English can help us better understand how learning to read and write can be supported for autistic children around the world. The studies included in our review highlight some potential differences in effective literacy teaching for autistic children learning to read and write using different writing systems. The studies we reviewed tended to include relatively small samples of autistic children, among other limitations. We hope that our review will increase awareness and research efforts in the area of autism and global literacy.

The association between disability and risk of exposure to peer cyber victimisation is moderated by gender: Cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the exposure of youth with disability to cyber victimisation. OBJECTIVE: /Hypothesis: To estimate the prevalence of peer cyber and non-cyber victimisation in a nationally representative sample of 14-year-old adolescents with and without disability and to determine whether gender moderates the relationship between disability and exposure to victimisation. METHODS: Secondary analysis of data collected in Wave 6 of the UK's Millennium Cohort Survey on 11,726 14-year-old adolescents living in the UK. RESULTS: Adolescents with disability had higher prevalence of cyber and non-cyber victimisation than those with no disability. For cyber victimisation there was a statistically significant interaction between gender and disability, with evidence of increased cyber victimisation for adolescents with disability compared to those with no disability among girls, but not boys. For non-cyber victimisation there was no evidence of an interaction between gender and disability. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of both cyber and non-cyber victimisation was higher among adolescents with disability than those with no disability. The association between disability and risk of exposure to peer cyber victimisation appears to be moderated by gender.

An Automated Lexical Stress Classification Tool for Assessing Dysprosody in Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) commonly affects the production of lexical stress contrast in polysyllabic words. Automated classification tools have the potential to increase reliability and efficiency in measuring lexical stress. Here, factors affecting the accuracy of a custom-built deep neural network (DNN)-based classification tool are evaluated. Sixteen children with typical development (TD) and 26 with CAS produced 50 polysyllabic words. Words with strong-weak (SW, e.g., dinosaur) or WS (e.g., banana) stress were fed to the classification tool, and the accuracy measured (a) against expert judgment, (b) for speaker group, and (c) with/without prior knowledge of phonemic errors in the sample. The influence of segmental features and participant factors on tool accuracy was analysed. Linear mixed modelling showed significant interaction between group and stress type, surviving adjustment for age and CAS severity. For TD, agreement for SW and WS words was >80%, but CAS speech was higher for SW (>80%) than WS (~60%). Prior knowledge of segmental errors conferred no clear advantage. Automatic lexical stress classification shows promise for identifying errors in children's speech at diagnosis or with treatment-related change, but accuracy for WS words in apraxic speech needs improvement. Further training of algorithms using larger sets of labelled data containing impaired speech and WS words may increase accuracy.

Sleep spindle activity correlates with implicit statistical learning consolidation in untreated obstructive sleep apnea patients.

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between overnight consolidation of implicit statistical learning with spindle frequency EEG activity and slow frequency delta power during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). PATIENTS/METHODS: Forty-seven OSA participants completed the experiment. Prior to sleep, participants performed a reaction time cover task containing hidden patterns of pictures, about which participants were not informed. After the familiarisation phase, participants underwent overnight polysomnography. 24 h after the familiarisation phase, participants performed a test phase to assess their learning of the hidden patterns, expressed as a percentage of the number of correctly identified patterns. Spindle frequency activity (SFA) and delta power (0.5-4.5 Hz), were quantified from NREM electroencephalography. Associations between statistical learning and sleep EEG, and OSA severity measures were examined. RESULTS: SFA in NREM sleep in frontal and central brain regions was positively correlated with statistical learning scores (r = 0.41 to 0.31, p = 0.006 to 0.044). In multiple regression, greater SFA and longer sleep onset latency were significant predictors of better statistical learning performance. Delta power and OSA severity were not significantly correlated with statistical learning. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest spindle activity may serve as a marker of statistical learning capability in OSA. This work provides novel insight into how altered sleep physiology relates to consolidation of implicitly learnt information in patients with moderate to severe OSA.

The Promise of Comprehensive Early Reading Instruction for Children With Autism and Recommendations for Future Directions.

Purpose Children with autism have an increased likelihood of reading difficulties. The reasons for this are numerous and varied, but many children with autism can learn to read when they are provided with evidence-based early reading instruction. Method Here, we provide an overview of some of the factors that impact early reading development for children with autism and a rationale for the provision of comprehensive early reading instruction consistent with the recommendations of the National Reading Panel (NRP). We discuss research on NRP instruction for children with autism, including some of our own empirical studies. We also discuss some areas of research that were not emphasized by the NRP but that we view as important. We offer recommendations that extend beyond NRP guidelines in order to advance knowledge and improve practice. Conclusions Comprehensive early reading instruction holds great promise for children with autism, but there are gaps in our understanding that need to be addressed. These include the most effective method(s) for tailoring reading instruction to the needs of the individual while optimizing delivery to small groups of children, supporting skills and making other accommodations not outlined by the NRP, and consideration of bilingualism and of reading instruction in languages other than English, among other issues. While our focus in this review article is early reading instruction for children with autism who use oral language, we acknowledge that there is a major gap in the literature concerning reading instruction for those who do not use oral language. We hope that this review article will be helpful to clinicians, educators, and researchers alike, as well as children with autism and their families, friends, and support networks.