Search results for "fluency"

Accelerating decoding-related skills in poor readers learning a foreign language: a computer-based intervention

2013

The results of Fast ForWord® training on English decoding-related skills were examined. Finnish fifth-grade students were identified as having reading fluency problems and poor skills in English as a foreign language learned at school and were randomly assigned to either a training group (TRG) or a control group. The TRG (n = 13) received 50 min of daily computer program-based training for a period of approximately 10 weeks. Students in the first control group (n = 11) received the school’s regular instructional programme. A second control group was composed of 14 average readers. The students’ English skills were examined in pre-test, post-test and follow-up measurements. The TRG students …

Introducing mindfulness and compassion‐based interventions to improve verbal creativity in students of clinical and health psychology

2021

OBJECTIVES In the field of psychotherapy, verbal creativity has been suggested as an important aspect in psychotherapists' training. In the present study, the effects of a mindfulness and compassion-based intervention (MCBI) on verbal creativity are analysed in students of clinical and health psychology (N = 90). DESIGN Students were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 37), in which an MCBI was applied, and a waiting list group (n = 26) with no intervention. We also assessed a non-randomized active control group (n = 27), in which students received training in basic psychotherapy skills. METHODS Verbal creativity (fluency, flexibility, and originality) was evaluated in a pre-, p…

2021

Students with poor reading skills and reading difficulties (RDs) are at elevated risk for bullying involvement in elementary school, but it is not known whether they are at risk also later in adolescence. This study investigated the longitudinal interplay between reading skills (fluency and comprehension), victimization, and bullying across the transition from elementary to middle school, controlling for externalizing and internalizing problems. The sample consists of 1,824 students (47.3% girls, T1 mean age was 12 years 9 months) from 150 Grade 6 classrooms, whose reading fluency and comprehension, self-reported victimization and bullying, and self-reported externalizing and internalizing …

NEUROPLASTIC AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGES FOLLOWING PRISM ADAPTATION

2022

Prismatic or Prism adaptation (PA) is a particular visuomotor procedure that through the deviation of visual field and a motor task influences brain activity (Redding & Wallace, 2006). Initially developed 1998, when Rossetti et al. study showed an improvement of neglected hemispace exploring emineglected stroke patients, the number of studies focused on PA was greatly increased. The PA effects were investigated in healthy subjects as well as in patients in different tasks targeting different cognitive functions. A large number of applications of PA procedure was developed in the different studies but the majority of the procedures includes a movement task during the wearing of lenses that d…

Modulating fluency with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation over right or left inferior frontal gyrus

2017

Objective In these last years, a growing body of evidence has already indicated that non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), can modulate the language system in aphasic populations. The aim of this presentation is to investigate for the first time the effects of inhibitory rTMS over the left and right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) on phonemic fluency tasks. Participants Sixty-six right-handed healthy participants participated in the study. Forty-four had administered offline low-frequency (1 Hz) rTMS for 10 minutes and verbal fluency outcome measures were recorded. Twenty-two participants w…

2020

This study examined the stability of reading difficulties (RD) from grades 2 to 6 and focused on the effects of measurement error and cut-off selection in the identification of RD and its stability with the use of simulations. It addressed methodological limitations of prior studies by (a) applying a model-based simulation analysis to examine the effects of measurement error and cut-offs in the identification of RD, (b) analyzing a non-English and larger sample, and (c) examining RD in both reading fluency and reading comprehension. Reading fluency and reading comprehension of 1,432 Finnish-speaking children were assessed in grades 2 and 6. In addition to the use of single cut-off points on…

Short-term Neuropsychiatric Outcomes and Quality of Life in COVID-19 Survivors

2020

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe general medical impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) are increasingly appreciated. However, its impact on neurocognitive, psychiatric health and quality of life (QoL) in survivors after the acute phase is poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate neurocognitive function, psychiatric symptoms, and QoL in COVID-19 survivors shortly after hospital discharge.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional analysis of a prospective study of hospitalized COVID-19 survivors followed-up for 2 months after discharge. A battery of standardized instruments evaluating neurocognitive function, psychiatric morbidity, and QoL (mental and physical components) was administered by telephone.FindingsOf the…

2018

The aim of the present study was to extend the previous intervention research in math by examining whether elementary school children with poor calculation fluency benefit from strategy training focusing on derived fact strategies and following an integrative framework, i.e., integrating factual, conceptual, and procedural arithmetic knowledge. It was also examined what kind of changes can be found in frequency of using different strategies. A quasi-experimental design was applied, and the study was carried out within the context of the school and its schedules and resources. Twenty schools in Finland volunteered to participate, and 1376 children were screened in for calculation fluency pro…

Reading self-efficacy and reading fluency development among primary school children: Does specificity of self-efficacy matter?

2019

Abstract Efficacy beliefs relate to effort and persistence devoted to learning. Therefore, efficacy beliefs might be especially important in achieving skills that require persistent practice, such as fluent reading. Although reading self-efficacy has been positively linked to reading comprehension, less is known about its relationship to reading fluency . The relationship between reading self-efficacy studied at three specificity levels and reading fluency development was examined among Finnish primary school students ( N = 1327). The results showed that self-efficacy related positively to reading fluency and its development. The association was dependent on the specificity of the self-effi…

Neurocognitive impairments in non-deprived smokers-results from a population-based multi-center study on smoking-related behavior

2012

The aim of the present study was to examine neurocognitive function associated with chronic nicotine use. A total of 2163 healthy participants (1002 smokers, 1161 never-smoking controls) participated in a population-based case- control design.The main outcome measures were six cognitive domain factors derived from a neuropsychological test battery. In smokers, the battery was administered after controlled smoking of one cigarette. Analyses included age, sex and education as covariates. Results demonstrated small, but significant deficits in smokers for visual attention (P < 0.001) and cognitive impulsivity (P < 0.006), while verbal episodic memory, verbal fluency, verbal working memory, and…