No abstract

Objective: Word recognition, fluency, vocabulary, and working memory have been established as predictors of reading comprehension in the first elementary school grades. However, the additional role of reasoning is not so clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of word recognition, fluency, vocabulary, working memory, verbal, and nonverbal reasoning on reading comprehension, focusing on the additional effect of reasoning when the effects of the other variables are controlled. Method: A group of 159 students from the second and fourth grades was assessed. Results: The results indicated that all variables are correlated with reading comprehension and that the effect size varies according to the school grade. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses revealed that in second grade, fluency was the strongest predictor of reading comprehension and that reasoning had no effect on reading comprehension, after controlling for the previous variables. However, in the fourth grade, non-verbal reasoning was the only significant unique predictor of reading comprehension, after accounting for the influence of the other variables. Conclusions: These results highlight the importance of promoting the mastery of accurate and fluent reading in the lower grades while promoting reasoning abilities in the higher grades.

The aim of this study was to analyse the existence of differences in lexical development as a function of day care attendance and maternal education. Data were collected using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences. The reports of 2084 toddlers were analysed. The results for toddlers older than 24 months indicated that those from mothers with higher educational levels produced a higher number of words in all lexical categories than those from mothers with lower educational levels. When considering younger toddlers, a significant effect of maternal education was only found on the number of common nouns produced. Nevertheless, the size of these effects was small. Quantity of day care attendance had no effect on the number of words produced. No interaction effects between maternal education and day care attendance were found. These findings indicate that maternal education may be differently associated with the production of words from different lexical categories.

The results from a large-scale study on toddlers’ language acquisition in European Portuguese are presented. Toddlers’ lexical and grammatical competencies were assessed using the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences. The results, based on 3012 reports completed by parents, indicate an increase in the lexical size and on five measures of grammatical development (production of regular morphology, irregular morphology, over-regularizations, mean length of utterances and sentence complexity) across age groups. A main effect of gender was found for lexical size, production of regular and irregular morphology, production of over-regularizations and sentence complexity, with girls obtaining overall higher scores than boys. All lexical and grammatical development measures are positively correlated, even after controlling for age and gender effects. These findings are discussed in terms of their consistency with those obtained for other languages.

Este é um artigo de acesso aberto, licenciado por Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional (CC BY 4.0), sendo permitidas reprodução, adaptação e distribuição desde que o autor e a fonte originais sejam creditados.A utilização da plataforma "Ainda Estou a Aprender" na avaliação e na intervenção nas dificuldades na aprendizagem da leitura: um estudo de casoThe platform "I'm still learning" in the assessment and intervention in reading disabilities: A case study RESUMO -As dificuldades na aprendizagem da leitura (DAL) constituem uma das principais causas de referenciação dos alunos para apoio educativo, na medida em que estas têm implicações no percurso escolar dos alunos, na inserção no mercado de trabalho e na participação social e cívica. A investigação realizada nas últimas décadas tem permitido identificar as condições chave para a eficácia da intervenção: necessidade de um ensino mais explícito (da consciência fonológica, da leitura de palavras e da compreensão); precocidade; sistematicidade; individualização; intensidade. A heterogeneidade do grupo de alunos com DAL requer uma avaliação que permita identificar os diferentes perfis e desenhar a intervenção adequada. Esta avaliação e intervenção exigem materiais e competências específicos. Os principais objetivos deste artigo são: (a) apresentar a plataforma educativa Ainda Estou a Aprender (AEA), procurando ilustrar o modo como as tecnologias de informação podem apoiar quer o diagnóstico, quer a intervenção nas DAL; (b) analisar, através de um estudo de caso, as perceções relativamente às atividades propostas na plataforma AEA e o seu impacto nos padrões de motivação para a aprendizagem da leitura.Palavras-chave: dificuldades na aprendizagem da leitura, avaliação e intervenção, plataforma educativa online.ABSTRACT -Reading disabilities are one of the main causes of signalization of students for educational support, given that these have implications in their educational trajectory, in their entrance in the job market and in their civic and social participation. The research performed in the last decades has identified key variables that maximize the efficacy of the intervention: teaching competences (phonological awareness, word reading and comprehension) explicitly, early, systematically, individually and intensively. The heterogeneity of the group of students with reading disabilities requires an assessment that allows the identification of the diverse profiles and the designing of adequate intervention programs. In turn, the assessment and intervention require specific materials and competences. The aims of this paper are: (a) to describe the educational platform "I'm still learning" illustrating how information and communication technologies can be used in the diagnostic and intervention in reading disabilities; (b) to analyse, through a case study, the perceptions about the activities presented in the platform AEA, and their impact on the patterns of motivation for learning to read.

Research has widely demonstrated the contribution of word reading, listening comprehension skills, and oral reading fluency to reading comprehension performance. However, the existence of reciprocal relations among these skills has been investigated less frequently. The authors examined the directionality of the relations among reading comprehension, listening comprehension, word reading, and oral reading fluency in Portuguese elementary school students from second to fourth grade by using a longitudinal cross‐lagged design. The sample was composed of 261 students assessed at the end of grades 2, 3, and 4. The results indicated that there is a reciprocal relation between listening comprehension and reading comprehension in every grade and that oral reading fluency and reading comprehension have a reciprocal relation only in the initial years of schooling, similar to the observed relation between oral reading fluency and word reading. The results are discussed considering their potential impact and the limitations of the study.

An effective reading comprehension measurement demands robust psychometric tools that allow teachers and researchers to evaluate the educational practices and track changes in students' performance. In this study, we illustrate how Rasch model can be used to attend such demands and improve reading comprehension measurement. We discuss the construction of two reading comprehension tests: TRC-n, with narrative texts, and TRC-e, with expository texts. Three vertically scaled forms were generated for each test (TRC-n-2, TRC-n-3, TRC-n-4; TRC-e-2, TRC-e-3 and TRC-e-4), each meant to assess Portuguese students in second, third and fourth grade of elementary school. The tests were constructed according to a nonequivalent groups with anchor test design and data were analyzed using the Rasch model. The results provided evidence for good psychometric qualities for each test form, including unidimensionality and local independence and adequate reliability. A critical view of this study and future researches are discussed.

This investigation aimed to develop and collect psychometric data for two tests assessing listening comprehension of Portuguese students in primary school: the Test of Listening Comprehension of Narrative Texts (TLC-n) and the Test of Listening Comprehension of Expository Texts (TLC-e). Two studies were conducted. The purpose of study 1 was to construct four test forms for each of the two tests to assess first, second, third and fourth grade students of the primary school. The TLC-n was administered to 1042 students, and the TLC-e was administered to 848 students. The purpose of study 2 was to test the psychometric properties of new items for the TLC-n form for fourth graders, given that the results in study 1 indicated a severe lack of difficult items. The participants were 260 fourth graders. The data were analysed using the Rasch model. Thirty items were selected for each test form. The results provided support for the model assumptions: Unidimensionality and local independence of the items. The reliability coefficients were higher than .70 for all test forms. The TLC-n and the TLC-e present good psychometric properties and represent an important contribution to the learning disabilities assessment field.