The present study investigated whether orthographic depth can increase the bias towards multi-letter processing in two reading-related skills: visual attention span (VAS) and rapid automatized naming (RAN). VAS (i.e., the number of visual elements that can be processed at once in a multi-element array) was tested with a visual 1-back task and RAN…

Introduction: Certain behaviors associated with high intellectual ability, such as inattention and early response, are often confused with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), making correct diagnosis more difficult. The objective of the present study was to analyze the performance of students with high intellectual ability and…

This study investigates whether orthographic consistency and transparency of languages have an impact on the development of reading strategies and reading sub-skills (i.e. phonemic awareness and visual attention span) in bilingual children. We evaluated 21 French (opaque)-Basque (transparent) bilingual children and 21 Spanish (transparent)-Basque…

Concurrent associations between teacher ratings of inattention, hyperactivity and pre-reading skills were examined in 64 pre-schoolers who had not commenced formal reading instruction and 136 school entrants who were in the first weeks of reading instruction. Both samples of children completed measures of pre-reading skills, namely phonological…

This study examines the effectiveness of fixed-time (FT) and variable-time (VT) schedules and attention on the problem behaviors and on-task behaviors of students with and without intellectual disabilities in inclusive classrooms in Turkey. Three second-grade students with intellectual disabilities, three students without intellectual…

The objectives of this study were (a) to evaluate parental stress in parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD group) and compare it with the stress in parents of children with typical development (comparison group); (b) to study the relationship between parental stress, autism severity, and both verbal and performance IQ; and (c) to…

In this comparative study, students from inclusive schools in Canada and Saudi Arabia shared their beliefs about factors associated with learning difficulties. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with 36 Canadian and 62 Saudi elementary students in Grades 5 and 6. Thematic analysis uncovered six themes: lack of knowledge,…

The low rates of child literacy in South Africa are cause for considerable concern. Research from the developed world shows that parental sharing of picture books with infants and young children is beneficial for child language and cognitive development, as well as literacy skills. We conducted a pilot study to examine whether such benefits might…

Purpose: This preliminary investigation assessed the attentional processes of preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) during Traditional cueing and Affect cueing tasks. Method: Participants consisted of 12 3- to 5-year-old CWS and the same number of CWNS (all boys). Both talker groups participated in two tasks of shifting and…

The simultaneous auditory processing skills of 17 dyslexic children and 17 skilled readers were measured using a dichotic listening task. Results showed that the dyslexic children exhibited difficulties reporting syllabic material when presented simultaneously. As a measure of simultaneous visual processing, visual attention span skills were…

Background: Comorbidity among developmental disorders such as dyslexia, language impairment, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and developmental coordination disorder is common. This study explores comorbid weaknesses in preschool children at family risk of dyslexia with and without language impairment and considers the role that…

Background: The attentional blink (AB) phenomenon was used to assess the effect of emotional information on early visual attention in typically developing (TD) children and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The AB effect is the momentary perceptual unawareness that follows target identification in a rapid serial visual processing…

School-aged children and adolescents with autism demonstrate circumscribed attentional patterns to nonsocial aspects of complex visual arrays (Sasson et al. "2008"). The current study downward extended these findings to a sample of 2-5 year-olds with autism and 2-5 year-old typically developing children. Eye-tracking was used to quantify discrete…

Attentional problems are commonly reported as a feature of the behavioural profile in both Williams syndrome (WS) and Down's syndrome (DS). Recent studies have begun to investigate these impairments empirically, acknowledging the need for an approach that considers cross-syndrome comparisons and developmental changes across the different component…

Objective: To examine whether participants with ADHD showed a deficit in Stroop/reverse-Stroop interference by comparing them to non-ADHD participants. Method: A group with ADHD, primarily inattentive type (n = 15), and a paired non-ADHD group (n = 15) completed the group version of the Stroop/reverse-Stroop test. Results: Asymmetric interference…