This dissertation is a secondary research which is aimed to reveal ways in which students can improve their literacy level with the use of technological activities and programs. It tells how teachers can implement programs that will positively improve a child's academic. The research has detailed information showing the impacts that have proven to…

Narrative production draws upon linguistic, cognitive and pragmatic skills, and is subject to substantial individual differences. This study aimed to characterise the development of narrative production in late childhood and to assess whether children's cumulative experience of reading fiction is associated with individual differences in narrative…

Early Words Together is a National Literacy Trust programme that develops young children's communication, language and literacy through the support of families by peer volunteers. Over six weeks, the programme brings practitioners and volunteers together to enable target families to improve their home learning environment for children aged two to…

Background: Strong associations between infant vocabulary and school-age language and literacy skills would have important practical and theoretical implications: Preschool assessment of vocabulary skills could be used to identify children at risk of reading and language difficulties, and vocabulary could be viewed as a cognitive foundation for…

This study examined sex differences in reading skill and reading motivation, investigating whether these differences could be better accounted for by sex, or by gender identity. One hundred and eighty-two primary school children (98 males) aged 8-11 completed a reading comprehension assessment, reading motivation questionnaire and a gender role…

How to compute and report subscores for a test that was originally designed for reporting scores on a unidimensional scale has been a topic of interest in recent years. In the research reported here, we describe an application of multidimensional item response theory to identify a subscore structure in a test designed for reporting results using a…

Background: This study evaluates the effects of a language and literacy intervention for children with Down syndrome. Methods: Teaching assistants (TAs) were trained to deliver a reading and language intervention to children in individual daily 40-min sessions. We used a waiting list control design, in which half the sample received the…

Technology is playing an increasingly large role in children's reading, writing and daily lives. In the last year use of tablet computers by five to 15-year-olds has increased three-fold (14% to 42%) and 28% of three to four-year-olds use a tablet computer. However, little attention has been paid to the impact of new technologies on children's…

This essay offers a commentary on how the relationship between language and literacy practices in and out of school has been conceptualized. It draws upon two new books in the field. Shirley Brice Heath's new book, "Words at Work and Play: Three Decades in Family and Community Life," which makes use of rich ethnographic accounts of…

It is well-established that language skills are amongst the best predictors of educational success. Consistent with this, findings from a population-based longitudinal study of parents and children in the UK indicate that language development at the age of two years predicts children's performance on entering primary school. Moreover, children who…

Young people with specific language impairment (SLI) are at risk for poorer outcomes with respect to employment in adulthood, yet little is known of how early school-age prework experiences prepare them for the job market. This study examined whether young people with SLI engage in similar types of early work experiences as their typically…

Background: Bishop and Snowling (2004) proposed that children with language impairments (LI) and children with reading difficulties (RD) can be considered to be on a (phonological) continuum of risk for reading impairments. Aims: The first aim of the present study was to address two specific hypotheses about the relationship between RD and LI. The…

Background: Children with phonological problems are a significant proportion of many therapists' caseloads. However, little is known about current clinical practice with these children or whether research on the effects of therapy have influenced this practice. Aims: To investigate the methods of assessment and remediation used by therapists…

14,000 Saudi students are currently studying in the UK. Before they start their coursework in their major, most take English language courses for at least a year and should pass the IELTS test. Interviews with a sample of Saudi students studying in the UK showed that focus in the English courses that students take is mainly on grammar and written…

Following the development and standardization of the British Sign Language (BSL) Receptive Skills Test (Herman et al., 1999), the test was made widely available to professionals working with deaf children. Test users were asked to return completed score-sheets on individual children they had tested in order to compare a selection of children from…