Faye Antoniou

In educational and clinical settings, few norm-referenced tests have
been utilized until now usually focusing on a single or a few language
subcomponents, along with very few language rating scales for parents and
educators. The need for a comprehensive language assessment tool for
preschool and early school years children which could form the basis for
valid and reliable screening and diagnostic decisions, led to the development
of a new norm-referenced digital tool called Logometro®. The aim of
the present study is to describe Logometro® as well as its psychometric
characteristics. Logometro® evaluates an array of oral language skills across
the different language domains such as phonological awareness, listening
comprehension, vocabulary knowledge (receptive and expressive), narrative
speech, morphological awareness, pragmatics, as well emergent literacy skills
(letter sound knowledge and invented writing) in Greek-speaking 4–7 years
old children. More specifically, Logometro® has been designed in order
to: (a) map individual language development paths as well as difficulties,
(b) provide a descriptive profile of children’s oral language and emergent
literacy skills, and (c) assist in the identification of children who are at risk
for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) or Specific Learning Disabilities
(SLD). The sample consisted of 926 children aged from 4 to 7 years, which
were recruited from diverse geographical provinces and represented a variety
of socioeconomic backgrounds in Greece. Eight hundred participants were
typically developing children (Nboys = 384 and Ngirls = 416), 126 children (NSLI = 44
and NSLD = 82) represented children with Special Educational Needs, and 126
children were typically developing peers matched for gender and age with
the clinical groups. The administration lasted 90 min, depending on the
participant’s age and competence. Validity (construct, criterion, convergent,
discriminant, and predictive) as well as internal consistency and test–retest
reliability were assessed. Results indicated that Logometro® is characterized
by good psychometric properties and can constitute a norm-referenced
battery of oral language and emergent literacy skills. It could be used to inform
the professionals as well as the researchers about a child’s language strengths and weaknesses and form the basis on which they can design an appropriate individualized intervention if needed.

The development of spelling skill is an intricate process for children with or at risk of Specific Learning Disabilities and requires targeted interventions. This problem exacerbates in the Greek orthographic system owning to its high complexity. The current study presents a novel spelling intervention program for Greek 3rd graders at risk of Specific Learning Disabilities, which was founded upon the principles of Direct Instruction and encompassed evidence-based practices. The effectiveness of the proposed 16-h intervention program was investigated via its implementation in Greek resource rooms by the corresponding teachers. The children were randomly assigned into the intervention (n ¼ 39) and the comparison group (n ¼ 34). Standardized tests were used for children's assessment during pretests, post-tests I, and post-tests II. Importantly, the results obtained via ANOVA demonstrated that the children of the intervention group showed a statistically significant improvement in spelling contrary to the comparison group. Additionally, the impact of the intervention program on children's decoding and fluency skills was examined, yielding enhanced, yet, no statistically significant outcomes. The educational implications of the related findings are also discussed. Overall, the proposed study provides tangible evidence that spelling can be taught effectively to SLD children.

Oral language and narrative skills constitute very critical factors for children's academic performance and social competence. The aim of the present study was to investigate the developmental patterns of story retelling, as well as the relationship between oral language and story retelling in preschool and primary school children. Two hundred and thirty-seven Greek-speaking children (4-5, 5-6 and 6-7 years old) participated in the study. Vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, morphological awareness skills and pragmatics were examined through a standardized psychometric test. Story retelling was measured by inviting the children to listen to a story and then retell it. Children's narratives were evaluated according to microstructure (use of conjunctions and lexical cohesion) and macrostructure (story grammar and temporal sequencing) criteria. The results showed that children performed better as they got older across all the oral language and story retelling tasks. Structural equation modeling revealed that vocabulary skills stand out as a stable predictor across all the three age groups. A new finding was also demonstrated, highlighting that morphological awareness, phonological awareness skills and pragmatics work together with vocabulary skills in diverse patterns at different points of a child's development, in order to support his/her ability to retell a story.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of quarantine on the psychosocial adjustment of 5th and 6th graders who were educated in public schools in Greece. Participants were 58 students recruited from 3 elementary schools of Attika, Greece. They were educated using distance online learning means, synchronous (n=20) and asynchronous (n=38). Students' psychosocial adjustment levels were assessed one week prior to the commencement of quarantine and the week following in person schooling (period between March and June of 2020) using a standardized and normed measure for the Greek population, namely the Socioemotional Adjustment scale (Hatzichristou et al., 2008). The instrument engages 115 items to assess the following subdomains: social efficacy, emotional efficacy, school efficacy, self-esteem, and problem behavior. Results indicated that for the total sample, among psychosocial domains, school efficacy scores significantly decreased at posttest. Differences between groups, synchronous and asynchronous at posttest were revealed in social efficacy, school efficacy, and self-esteem favoring the asynchronous group. Findings highlight the vital need for enhanced teacher training on distance learning practice.

Οι εκπαιδευτικοί που διδάσκουν μαθήματα που σχετίζονται με τις γεωεπιστήμες σε μαθητές με αναπηρίες όρασης έχουν να αντιμετωπίσουν μια επιπλέον πρόκληση καθώς στην περίπτωση αυτή οι οπτικές αναπαραστάσεις δεν αποτελούν επιλογή. Οι παραπάνω μαθητές ωστόσο ανταποκρίνονται εξαιρετικά καλά σε αισθητήρια ερεθίσματα, τα οποία μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν σε δραστηριότητες πρακτικής εξάσκησης (hands-on). Αυτή η πολύτιμη προσέγγιση στην εκπαίδευσή τους συμβάλει στην απόκτηση νέων εμπειριών και οδηγεί στην κατανόηση απλών επιστημονικών εννοιών οι οποίες με τη σειρά τους θέτουν τα θεμέλιά για την περεταίρω διερεύνηση και διδασκαλία πολυπλοκότερων αντιλήψεων. Στην παρούσα εργασία παρουσιάζεται μία ολοκληρωμένη εκπαιδευτική πρόταση, εξατομικευμένης διδασκαλίας, για μαθητές με αναπηρίες όρασης. Η προσέγγιση αυτή εμπλέκει τους μαθητές σε δραστηριότητες προκειμένου αυτοί να προσεγγίσουν έννοιες όπως η δομή του εσωτερικού της Γης, οι κινήσεις των λιθοσφαιρικών πλακών, η δημιουργία σεισμών και τα αποτελέσματα τους. Η εργασία αυτή στοχεύει στο να αποτελέσει ένα χρήσιμο εργαλείο οδηγό για τη διδασκαλία της αντίστοιχης ενότητας του μαθήματος της Γεωλογίας-Γεωγραφίας σε μαθητές γενικού γυμνασίου με αναπηρίες όρασης. Ως εκ τούτου, περιγράφονται οι μη εξειδικευμένες τεχνικές παρασκευής προσβάσιμων εκπαιδευτικών αντικειμένων που κατασκευάστηκαν με υλικά που είναι εύκολο να βρεθούν και έχουν χαμηλό κόστος, συνοδευόμενα από τα αντίστοιχα σενάρια διδασκαλίας που προτείνονται σε κάθε περίπτωση. Το σύνολο του εκπαιδευτικού υλικού που παρουσιάζεται, σχεδιάστηκε και αναπτύχθηκε ώστε να αποτελέσει μια ευχάριστη εμπειρία που προ-καλεί το ενδιαφέρον των μαθητών. Συμπερασματικά, η διδασκαλία θεμάτων που αφορούν τη Γεωλογία δεν θα πρέπει να αποφεύγεται σε μαθητές με αναπηρίες όρασης. Οι εκπαιδευτικοί ειδικής αγωγής ή οι εκπαιδευτικοί που έτυχε στην τάξη τους να έχουν μαθητές που αντιμετωπίζουν αναπηρίες όρασης μπορούν να εφαρμόσουν αυτούσιες τις βιωματικές δραστηριότητες που παρουσιάζονται, ενώ ενθαρρύνεται η χρήση των παραπάνω προ-τάσεων ως πηγή έμπνευσης που μπορεί να οδηγήσει στην παραγωγή παρόμοιου εκπαιδευτικού υλικού που να απευθύνεται σε διαφορετικές τάξεις, ηλικίες ή και σε διαφορετικά γνωστικά αντικείμενα.

The aim of the study was to investigate the developmental path of narrative skills of preschool and primary school children. Two hundred thirty seven Greek-speaking children from various regions of Greece participated in the study. They were separated in three age groups: 4-5, 5-6 and 6-7 years old. Retelling and narrative production skills were evaluated.  Correlations between the two narrative skills were investigated.  Four illustrated stories were used (two stories for retelling and two stories for narrative production).Children’s narratives were collected and transcribed from the recordings. Then, narratives were coded and assessed according to certain criteria: icrostructure/cohesion (conjunction and lexical cohesion) and macrostructure/ coherence (story grammar and temporal sequencing of actions and events). The findings revealed that narratives of older children tended to be better according to the story structure criteria in comparison to narratives produced by younger children. In addition, the qualitative analysis of children’s narratives demonstrated the different narrative levels (labeling, listing, connecting, sequencing and narrating) proposed by Stadler and Ward (2005). Children of all age groups performed better in retelling test compared to narrative production test. The results also revealed differences in performance in relation to gender (girls performed better than boys). Finally, a statistically significant correlation between children’s performance in retelling and narrative production skills was found. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical models of narrative abilities. Implications for research, theory and educational purposes are also discussed


Σκοπός της μελέτης ήταν να εξετάσει το αναπτυξιακό προφίλ του αφηγηματικού λόγου των παιδιών προσχολικής και πρώτης σχολικής ηλικίας. Αξιολογήθηκαν οι δεξιότητες παραγωγής ελεύθερης αφήγησης και οι δεξιότητες αναδιήγησης 237 παιδιών, ηλικίας 4-5, 5-6 και 67 ετών, από διάφορες περιοχές της Ελλάδας. Ακόμα, εξετάστηκε εάν υπάρχει συσχέτιση μεταξύ των δύο δεξιοτήτων αφηγηματικού λόγου. Ταυτόχρονα, μελετήθηκε κατά πόσο τα αναπτυξιακά επίπεδα (ονοματοθεσία, παράθεση, σύνδεση, αλληλουχία, αφήγηση) που προτείνονται από το μοντέλο των Stadler και Ward (2005) μπορούσαν να εντοπισθούν στο συγκεκριμένο δείγμα. Μέσω τεσσάρων εικονογραφημένων ιστοριών, συλλέχθηκαν αφηγήσεις που στην συνέχεια απομαγνητοφωνήθηκαν, κωδικοποιήθηκαν και βαθμολογήθηκαν ως προς τη μικροδομή και τη μακροδομή τους. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν πως οι αφηγηματικές δεξιότητες των παιδιών βελτιώθηκαν με την ηλικία τόσο ως προς την ελεύθερη αφήγηση όσο και ως προς την αναδιήγηση. Ωστόσο, τα παιδιά όλων των ηλικιακών ομάδων είχαν καλύτερες επιδόσεις στη δοκιμασία της αναδιήγησης συγκριτικά με τη δοκιμασία της ελεύθερης αφήγησης. Επίσης, τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν διαφορές στις επιδόσεις σε σχέση με το φύλο, με τα κορίτσια να εμφανίζουν καλύτερες επιδόσεις από τα αγόρια. Τέλος, βρέθηκε στατιστικώς σημαντική συσχέτιση μεταξύ των επιδόσεων των παιδιών στην αναδιήγηση και στην ελεύθερη παραγωγή. Τα αποτελέσματα συζητούνται σε σχέση την  αξιοποίησή τους στην εκπαιδευτική πράξη.