Auditory ERP recordings are a useful neurophysiological means of assessing the temporal domain of... more Auditory ERP recordings are a useful neurophysiological means of assessing the temporal domain of the pre-linguistic and linguistic sensory deficits involved in expressive specific language impairment (SLI). We recorded auditory ERPs in 32 pre-school children aged 3–5 years with SLI before they underwent a rehabilitation programme. The ERPs were evoked using syllables (SyERPs), music (MuERPs) and animal sounds (AnERP) chosen from among those used in the trials carried out before, during and after an intensive rehabilitation programme in order assess: (a) the quality of ERP abnormalities; (b) the selectiveness of the ERP changes associated with the three types of stimuli; and (c) the changes induced by the rehabilitation programme. The SyERPs and MuERPs gave rise to four components (in P1, N1, N2 and P2) classified on the basis of their latency and polarity; the AnERPs only gave rise to P1 and N1 components. The ERPs had both common and distinctive features in terms of their waveforms and topographical distribution: the SyERPs were more left lateralised, and the MuERP more right lateralised. Later negative components were also recorded depending on the type of stimulus. In comparison with controls, P1 and P2 SyERPs were the most abnormal. As the rehabilitation led to selective SyERP changes, these may be useful for diagnosis and monitoring SLI.
The current exploratory study aimed to offer a description of the learning skills and well-being ... more The current exploratory study aimed to offer a description of the learning skills and well-being of multilingual adolescents with Italian as L2, a population regarded as vulnerable with respect to their academic achievements and psychosocial profile. We compared the performance of L2 participants with that of their monolingual peers with and without Specific Learning Disorders on a range of tests and questionnaires to define their learning skills and well-being within the school context. Results confirm greater reading difficulties in the L2 group compared to monolingual peers with Specific Learning Disorders. This pilot study offers one of the first investigations into the learning skills and well-being of a scarcely studied population, namely L2 adolescents. Additionally, it discusses practices that can be implemented within the classroom to promote inclusion.
Due to the difficulties in differentiating bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorde... more Due to the difficulties in differentiating bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) from bilingual children with temporary language difficulties that may be caused by heterogeneous language input, language assessments of bilingual children are challenging for clinicians. Research demonstrates that assessments of bilingual children should be in all the languages a bilingual child speaks. This can be arduous for clinicians, but computerised screening approaches provide potential solutions. MuLiMi is a new web-based platform designed to automatise screening procedures for bilingual children at risk of DLD. To validate this procedure and investigate its reliability, 36 Spanish-speaking children, aged 4–6 years old, living in Italy, were tested remotely using the Italian–Spanish MuLiMi DLD screening. Sixteen of the participants were previously diagnosed with DLD. L2 (second or societal language) as well as L1 (first or family language) language abilities in static (n...
Over the last 40 years, ever-growing interest in sex-related differences in the human brain has l... more Over the last 40 years, ever-growing interest in sex-related differences in the human brain has led to a vast amount of literature on the subject, a small part of which relates to studies of differences in the ability to read. The data concerning typically developing children mainly come from school-based screening projects (Programme for International Student Assessment, INVALSI) and partially from the standardization of reading tests. These have revealed the existence of a gap in favor of females that primarily appears during adolescence and in situations of sociocultural disadvantage, usually explained on the basis of environmental factors such as socioeconomic status and gender-based education. Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is significantly more prevalent among males, a difference that neuroimaging and genetic studies have attributed to the presence of hormone-related protective factors in females, although it has been hypothesized that a different neurocognitive substrate may also be involved. However, the literature on the subject is still limited, and further studies of the interactions between genetic risk, environmental factors, and brain phenotypes are needed to clarify why females are better at performing reading tasks and less susceptible to dyslexia, regardless of their language or the educational system in the country in which they live. The aim of this mini-review was to describe the studies that have investigated sex-related differences in reading ability in both typically and atypically developing subjects.
Over the last 40 years, ever-growing interest in sex-related differences in the human brain has l... more Over the last 40 years, ever-growing interest in sex-related differences in the human brain has led to a vast amount of literature on the subject, a small part of which relates to studies of differences in the ability to read. The data concerning typically developing children mainly come from school-based screening projects (Programme for International Student Assessment, INVALSI) and partially from the standardization of reading tests. These have revealed the existence of a gap in favor of females that primarily appears during adolescence and in situations of sociocultural disadvantage, usually explained on the basis of environmental factors such as socioeconomic status and gender-based education. Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is significantly more prevalent among males, a difference that neuroimaging and genetic studies have attributed to the presence of hormone-related protective factors in females, although it has been hypothesized that a different neurocognitive substrate may also be involved. However, the literature on the subject is still limited, and further studies of the interactions between genetic risk, environmental factors, and brain phenotypes are needed to clarify why females are better at performing reading tasks and less susceptible to dyslexia, regardless of their language or the educational system in the country in which they live. The aim of this mini-review was to describe the studies that have investigated sex-related differences in reading ability in both typically and atypically developing subjects.
The study aims to investigate the performance of monolingual and bilingual children with and with... more The study aims to investigate the performance of monolingual and bilingual children with and without reading difficulties on language-dependent and language-independent tasks, and examine the relationship between the performance on these tasks and reading. There were 72 Italian-speaking children: 18 monolingual good readers (MONO-GR, Mage = 10;4), 19 monolingual poor readers (MONO-PR, Mage = 10;3), 21 bilingual good readers (BI-GR, Mage = 10;6), and 16 bilingual poor readers (BI-PR, Mage = 10;6). All bilingual children spoke Italian as their L2. Children completed a battery of standardized Italian reading tests, language-dependent tasks: nonword repetition (NWR), sentence repetition (SR), and phonological awareness (PA), and language-independent experimental tasks: timing anticipation, beat synchronization, rhythmic inhibition control, auditory reaction time, and rapid automatized naming (RAN). Results revealed medium to large significant differences between good and poor readers in...
The study aims to investigate the performance of monolingual and bilingual children with and with... more The study aims to investigate the performance of monolingual and bilingual children with and without reading difficulties on language-dependent and language-independent tasks, and examine the relationship between the performance on these tasks and reading. There were 72 Italian-speaking children: 18 monolingual good readers (MONO-GR, Mage = 10;4), 19 monolingual poor readers (MONO-PR, Mage = 10;3), 21 bilingual good readers (BI-GR, Mage = 10;6), and 16 bilingual poor readers (BI-PR, Mage = 10;6). All bilingual children spoke Italian as their L2. Children completed a battery of standardized Italian reading tests, language-dependent tasks: nonword repetition (NWR), sentence repetition (SR), and phonological awareness (PA), and language-independent experimental tasks: timing anticipation, beat synchronization, rhythmic inhibition control, auditory reaction time, and rapid automatized naming (RAN). Results revealed medium to large significant differences between good and poor readers in...
Based on the transfer effects of music training on the phonological and reading abilities of chil... more Based on the transfer effects of music training on the phonological and reading abilities of children with dyslexia, a computerized rhythmic intervention—the Rhythmic Reading Training (RRT)—was developed, in which reading exercises are combined with a rhythmic synchronization task. This rehabilitation program was previously tested in multiple controlled clinical trials, which confirmed its effectiveness in improving the reading skills of children and adolescents with dyslexia. In order to assess the specific contribution of the visual component of the training, namely, the presence of a visual cue supporting rhythmic synchronization, a controlled experimental study was conducted. Fifty-eight students with dyslexia aged 8 to 13 years were assigned to three conditions: (a) RRT auditory and visual condition, in which a visual cue was synchronized with the rhythmic stimulation; (b) RRT auditory-only condition, in which the visual cue was excluded; (c) no intervention. Comparisons of the...
Based on the transfer effects of music training on the phonological and reading abilities of chil... more Based on the transfer effects of music training on the phonological and reading abilities of children with dyslexia, a computerized rhythmic intervention—the Rhythmic Reading Training (RRT)—was developed, in which reading exercises are combined with a rhythmic synchronization task. This rehabilitation program was previously tested in multiple controlled clinical trials, which confirmed its effectiveness in improving the reading skills of children and adolescents with dyslexia. In order to assess the specific contribution of the visual component of the training, namely, the presence of a visual cue supporting rhythmic synchronization, a controlled experimental study was conducted. Fifty-eight students with dyslexia aged 8 to 13 years were assigned to three conditions: (a) RRT auditory and visual condition, in which a visual cue was synchronized with the rhythmic stimulation; (b) RRT auditory-only condition, in which the visual cue was excluded; (c) no intervention. Comparisons of the...
PURPOSE The Italian version (Granocchio et al., 2019) of the protocol proposed by Robbins and Kle... more PURPOSE The Italian version (Granocchio et al., 2019) of the protocol proposed by Robbins and Klee (1987) allows the assessment of structure of the vocal tract, oromotor and oro-phonatory ability, and articulatory diadochokinesis in children. The aim of this study was to collect the first normative sample of Italian children. METHODS We measured the total structural score (TSS), total functional score (TFS), oral function score (OFS), phonatory function score (PFS), maximum phonation time (MPT), speed of monosyllable repetition (SMR), and speed of polysyllable repetition (SPR) in 191 typically developing Italian children aged 2.6-6.11 years. RESULTS Like the finding observed in the original protocol, there were no significant age-related changes in TSS, but the correlation was observed for TFS, OFS, PFS, MPT, SMR and SPR. The Inter-observer agreement was "good" or "excellent" for all scores except for SPR that was "moderate". CONCLUSIONS The increase in oro-motor, oro-phonatory and diadochokinetic abilities confirmed the progressive maturation of these functions with age. The protocol can therefore be considered a useful instrument to classify speech sound disorders (SSDs) by excluding alterations in anatomical structures and evaluate the motor impairment. This normative sample of Italian children allows to use these measures for diagnostic purposes in young Italian speakers.
PURPOSE The Italian version (Granocchio et al., 2019) of the protocol proposed by Robbins and Kle... more PURPOSE The Italian version (Granocchio et al., 2019) of the protocol proposed by Robbins and Klee (1987) allows the assessment of structure of the vocal tract, oromotor and oro-phonatory ability, and articulatory diadochokinesis in children. The aim of this study was to collect the first normative sample of Italian children. METHODS We measured the total structural score (TSS), total functional score (TFS), oral function score (OFS), phonatory function score (PFS), maximum phonation time (MPT), speed of monosyllable repetition (SMR), and speed of polysyllable repetition (SPR) in 191 typically developing Italian children aged 2.6-6.11 years. RESULTS Like the finding observed in the original protocol, there were no significant age-related changes in TSS, but the correlation was observed for TFS, OFS, PFS, MPT, SMR and SPR. The Inter-observer agreement was "good" or "excellent" for all scores except for SPR that was "moderate". CONCLUSIONS The increase in oro-motor, oro-phonatory and diadochokinetic abilities confirmed the progressive maturation of these functions with age. The protocol can therefore be considered a useful instrument to classify speech sound disorders (SSDs) by excluding alterations in anatomical structures and evaluate the motor impairment. This normative sample of Italian children allows to use these measures for diagnostic purposes in young Italian speakers.
The dysgraphic disorder is usually underestimated and belatedly diagnosed. The need of prevention... more The dysgraphic disorder is usually underestimated and belatedly diagnosed. The need of prevention and early intervention focused on prewriting exercises emerges from the literature. We explore exergames to supply this need, together with an adequate assessment module of the training results. The exergames were designed in collaboration with clinicians and were tested on 16 kindergarten children. The movement data collected have allowed to provide some preliminary indexes of evaluation, that have shown to be consistent with the qualitative evaluation of the teachers. The use of the mobile application as a school exercise obtained positive feedback.
The dysgraphic disorder is usually underestimated and belatedly diagnosed. The need of prevention... more The dysgraphic disorder is usually underestimated and belatedly diagnosed. The need of prevention and early intervention focused on prewriting exercises emerges from the literature. We explore exergames to supply this need, together with an adequate assessment module of the training results. The exergames were designed in collaboration with clinicians and were tested on 16 kindergarten children. The movement data collected have allowed to provide some preliminary indexes of evaluation, that have shown to be consistent with the qualitative evaluation of the teachers. The use of the mobile application as a school exercise obtained positive feedback.
Auditory ERP recordings are a useful neurophysiological means of assessing the temporal domain of... more Auditory ERP recordings are a useful neurophysiological means of assessing the temporal domain of the pre-linguistic and linguistic sensory deficits involved in expressive specific language impairment (SLI). We recorded auditory ERPs in 32 pre-school children aged 3–5 years with SLI before they underwent a rehabilitation programme. The ERPs were evoked using syllables (SyERPs), music (MuERPs) and animal sounds (AnERP) chosen from among those used in the trials carried out before, during and after an intensive rehabilitation programme in order assess: (a) the quality of ERP abnormalities; (b) the selectiveness of the ERP changes associated with the three types of stimuli; and (c) the changes induced by the rehabilitation programme. The SyERPs and MuERPs gave rise to four components (in P1, N1, N2 and P2) classified on the basis of their latency and polarity; the AnERPs only gave rise to P1 and N1 components. The ERPs had both common and distinctive features in terms of their waveforms and topographical distribution: the SyERPs were more left lateralised, and the MuERP more right lateralised. Later negative components were also recorded depending on the type of stimulus. In comparison with controls, P1 and P2 SyERPs were the most abnormal. As the rehabilitation led to selective SyERP changes, these may be useful for diagnosis and monitoring SLI.
The current exploratory study aimed to offer a description of the learning skills and well-being ... more The current exploratory study aimed to offer a description of the learning skills and well-being of multilingual adolescents with Italian as L2, a population regarded as vulnerable with respect to their academic achievements and psychosocial profile. We compared the performance of L2 participants with that of their monolingual peers with and without Specific Learning Disorders on a range of tests and questionnaires to define their learning skills and well-being within the school context. Results confirm greater reading difficulties in the L2 group compared to monolingual peers with Specific Learning Disorders. This pilot study offers one of the first investigations into the learning skills and well-being of a scarcely studied population, namely L2 adolescents. Additionally, it discusses practices that can be implemented within the classroom to promote inclusion.
Due to the difficulties in differentiating bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorde... more Due to the difficulties in differentiating bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) from bilingual children with temporary language difficulties that may be caused by heterogeneous language input, language assessments of bilingual children are challenging for clinicians. Research demonstrates that assessments of bilingual children should be in all the languages a bilingual child speaks. This can be arduous for clinicians, but computerised screening approaches provide potential solutions. MuLiMi is a new web-based platform designed to automatise screening procedures for bilingual children at risk of DLD. To validate this procedure and investigate its reliability, 36 Spanish-speaking children, aged 4–6 years old, living in Italy, were tested remotely using the Italian–Spanish MuLiMi DLD screening. Sixteen of the participants were previously diagnosed with DLD. L2 (second or societal language) as well as L1 (first or family language) language abilities in static (n...
Over the last 40 years, ever-growing interest in sex-related differences in the human brain has l... more Over the last 40 years, ever-growing interest in sex-related differences in the human brain has led to a vast amount of literature on the subject, a small part of which relates to studies of differences in the ability to read. The data concerning typically developing children mainly come from school-based screening projects (Programme for International Student Assessment, INVALSI) and partially from the standardization of reading tests. These have revealed the existence of a gap in favor of females that primarily appears during adolescence and in situations of sociocultural disadvantage, usually explained on the basis of environmental factors such as socioeconomic status and gender-based education. Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is significantly more prevalent among males, a difference that neuroimaging and genetic studies have attributed to the presence of hormone-related protective factors in females, although it has been hypothesized that a different neurocognitive substrate may also be involved. However, the literature on the subject is still limited, and further studies of the interactions between genetic risk, environmental factors, and brain phenotypes are needed to clarify why females are better at performing reading tasks and less susceptible to dyslexia, regardless of their language or the educational system in the country in which they live. The aim of this mini-review was to describe the studies that have investigated sex-related differences in reading ability in both typically and atypically developing subjects.
Over the last 40 years, ever-growing interest in sex-related differences in the human brain has l... more Over the last 40 years, ever-growing interest in sex-related differences in the human brain has led to a vast amount of literature on the subject, a small part of which relates to studies of differences in the ability to read. The data concerning typically developing children mainly come from school-based screening projects (Programme for International Student Assessment, INVALSI) and partially from the standardization of reading tests. These have revealed the existence of a gap in favor of females that primarily appears during adolescence and in situations of sociocultural disadvantage, usually explained on the basis of environmental factors such as socioeconomic status and gender-based education. Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is significantly more prevalent among males, a difference that neuroimaging and genetic studies have attributed to the presence of hormone-related protective factors in females, although it has been hypothesized that a different neurocognitive substrate may also be involved. However, the literature on the subject is still limited, and further studies of the interactions between genetic risk, environmental factors, and brain phenotypes are needed to clarify why females are better at performing reading tasks and less susceptible to dyslexia, regardless of their language or the educational system in the country in which they live. The aim of this mini-review was to describe the studies that have investigated sex-related differences in reading ability in both typically and atypically developing subjects.
The study aims to investigate the performance of monolingual and bilingual children with and with... more The study aims to investigate the performance of monolingual and bilingual children with and without reading difficulties on language-dependent and language-independent tasks, and examine the relationship between the performance on these tasks and reading. There were 72 Italian-speaking children: 18 monolingual good readers (MONO-GR, Mage = 10;4), 19 monolingual poor readers (MONO-PR, Mage = 10;3), 21 bilingual good readers (BI-GR, Mage = 10;6), and 16 bilingual poor readers (BI-PR, Mage = 10;6). All bilingual children spoke Italian as their L2. Children completed a battery of standardized Italian reading tests, language-dependent tasks: nonword repetition (NWR), sentence repetition (SR), and phonological awareness (PA), and language-independent experimental tasks: timing anticipation, beat synchronization, rhythmic inhibition control, auditory reaction time, and rapid automatized naming (RAN). Results revealed medium to large significant differences between good and poor readers in...
The study aims to investigate the performance of monolingual and bilingual children with and with... more The study aims to investigate the performance of monolingual and bilingual children with and without reading difficulties on language-dependent and language-independent tasks, and examine the relationship between the performance on these tasks and reading. There were 72 Italian-speaking children: 18 monolingual good readers (MONO-GR, Mage = 10;4), 19 monolingual poor readers (MONO-PR, Mage = 10;3), 21 bilingual good readers (BI-GR, Mage = 10;6), and 16 bilingual poor readers (BI-PR, Mage = 10;6). All bilingual children spoke Italian as their L2. Children completed a battery of standardized Italian reading tests, language-dependent tasks: nonword repetition (NWR), sentence repetition (SR), and phonological awareness (PA), and language-independent experimental tasks: timing anticipation, beat synchronization, rhythmic inhibition control, auditory reaction time, and rapid automatized naming (RAN). Results revealed medium to large significant differences between good and poor readers in...
Based on the transfer effects of music training on the phonological and reading abilities of chil... more Based on the transfer effects of music training on the phonological and reading abilities of children with dyslexia, a computerized rhythmic intervention—the Rhythmic Reading Training (RRT)—was developed, in which reading exercises are combined with a rhythmic synchronization task. This rehabilitation program was previously tested in multiple controlled clinical trials, which confirmed its effectiveness in improving the reading skills of children and adolescents with dyslexia. In order to assess the specific contribution of the visual component of the training, namely, the presence of a visual cue supporting rhythmic synchronization, a controlled experimental study was conducted. Fifty-eight students with dyslexia aged 8 to 13 years were assigned to three conditions: (a) RRT auditory and visual condition, in which a visual cue was synchronized with the rhythmic stimulation; (b) RRT auditory-only condition, in which the visual cue was excluded; (c) no intervention. Comparisons of the...
Based on the transfer effects of music training on the phonological and reading abilities of chil... more Based on the transfer effects of music training on the phonological and reading abilities of children with dyslexia, a computerized rhythmic intervention—the Rhythmic Reading Training (RRT)—was developed, in which reading exercises are combined with a rhythmic synchronization task. This rehabilitation program was previously tested in multiple controlled clinical trials, which confirmed its effectiveness in improving the reading skills of children and adolescents with dyslexia. In order to assess the specific contribution of the visual component of the training, namely, the presence of a visual cue supporting rhythmic synchronization, a controlled experimental study was conducted. Fifty-eight students with dyslexia aged 8 to 13 years were assigned to three conditions: (a) RRT auditory and visual condition, in which a visual cue was synchronized with the rhythmic stimulation; (b) RRT auditory-only condition, in which the visual cue was excluded; (c) no intervention. Comparisons of the...
PURPOSE The Italian version (Granocchio et al., 2019) of the protocol proposed by Robbins and Kle... more PURPOSE The Italian version (Granocchio et al., 2019) of the protocol proposed by Robbins and Klee (1987) allows the assessment of structure of the vocal tract, oromotor and oro-phonatory ability, and articulatory diadochokinesis in children. The aim of this study was to collect the first normative sample of Italian children. METHODS We measured the total structural score (TSS), total functional score (TFS), oral function score (OFS), phonatory function score (PFS), maximum phonation time (MPT), speed of monosyllable repetition (SMR), and speed of polysyllable repetition (SPR) in 191 typically developing Italian children aged 2.6-6.11 years. RESULTS Like the finding observed in the original protocol, there were no significant age-related changes in TSS, but the correlation was observed for TFS, OFS, PFS, MPT, SMR and SPR. The Inter-observer agreement was "good" or "excellent" for all scores except for SPR that was "moderate". CONCLUSIONS The increase in oro-motor, oro-phonatory and diadochokinetic abilities confirmed the progressive maturation of these functions with age. The protocol can therefore be considered a useful instrument to classify speech sound disorders (SSDs) by excluding alterations in anatomical structures and evaluate the motor impairment. This normative sample of Italian children allows to use these measures for diagnostic purposes in young Italian speakers.
PURPOSE The Italian version (Granocchio et al., 2019) of the protocol proposed by Robbins and Kle... more PURPOSE The Italian version (Granocchio et al., 2019) of the protocol proposed by Robbins and Klee (1987) allows the assessment of structure of the vocal tract, oromotor and oro-phonatory ability, and articulatory diadochokinesis in children. The aim of this study was to collect the first normative sample of Italian children. METHODS We measured the total structural score (TSS), total functional score (TFS), oral function score (OFS), phonatory function score (PFS), maximum phonation time (MPT), speed of monosyllable repetition (SMR), and speed of polysyllable repetition (SPR) in 191 typically developing Italian children aged 2.6-6.11 years. RESULTS Like the finding observed in the original protocol, there were no significant age-related changes in TSS, but the correlation was observed for TFS, OFS, PFS, MPT, SMR and SPR. The Inter-observer agreement was "good" or "excellent" for all scores except for SPR that was "moderate". CONCLUSIONS The increase in oro-motor, oro-phonatory and diadochokinetic abilities confirmed the progressive maturation of these functions with age. The protocol can therefore be considered a useful instrument to classify speech sound disorders (SSDs) by excluding alterations in anatomical structures and evaluate the motor impairment. This normative sample of Italian children allows to use these measures for diagnostic purposes in young Italian speakers.
The dysgraphic disorder is usually underestimated and belatedly diagnosed. The need of prevention... more The dysgraphic disorder is usually underestimated and belatedly diagnosed. The need of prevention and early intervention focused on prewriting exercises emerges from the literature. We explore exergames to supply this need, together with an adequate assessment module of the training results. The exergames were designed in collaboration with clinicians and were tested on 16 kindergarten children. The movement data collected have allowed to provide some preliminary indexes of evaluation, that have shown to be consistent with the qualitative evaluation of the teachers. The use of the mobile application as a school exercise obtained positive feedback.
The dysgraphic disorder is usually underestimated and belatedly diagnosed. The need of prevention... more The dysgraphic disorder is usually underestimated and belatedly diagnosed. The need of prevention and early intervention focused on prewriting exercises emerges from the literature. We explore exergames to supply this need, together with an adequate assessment module of the training results. The exergames were designed in collaboration with clinicians and were tested on 16 kindergarten children. The movement data collected have allowed to provide some preliminary indexes of evaluation, that have shown to be consistent with the qualitative evaluation of the teachers. The use of the mobile application as a school exercise obtained positive feedback.
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