Text integration processes in children with Childhood Epilepsy with Centro-Temporal Spikes.

Although Childhood Epilepsy with Centro-Temporal Spikes (CECTS) is considered a 'benign' form of epilepsy, word reading, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension difficulties have been reported. We examined two core skills for text comprehension, coherence monitoring and inference generation, in children with CECTS and compared performance with typically developing controls. Children with CECTS (n = 23; 9 females; mean age 9 y 0 m) and the comparison group (n = 38; 14 females; mean age 9 y 1 m) completed two tasks. For coherence monitoring they heard 24 narrative texts, 16 containing two inconsistent sentences, and responded to a yes/no question to assess identification of the inconsistency after each text; for inference making they heard 16 texts designed to elicit a target inference by integrating information in two sentences and responded to a yes/no question to assess generation of the inference. In both tasks there was a near condition, in which critical sentences were adjacent, and a far condition in which these sentences were separated by filler sentences. Accuracy to the question and the processing time for critical sentences in the text were measured. We used listening comprehension tasks to control for variation in word reading ability. Mixed effects analyses for each task revealed that children with CECTS show comparable levels of accuracy to age-matched peers in these tasks tapping two core text integration skills: detection of inconsistencies and generation of inferences. However, they take longer to process texts indicating a likely source of their listening and reading comprehension difficulties.

Francey G ，Currie N ，Lew A ，De Goede C ，Basu H ，Cain K ... -  《-》

Assessment of inference-making in children using comprehension questions and story retelling: Effect of text modality and a story presentation format.

Reading and listening comprehension are essential for accessing the school curriculum. Inference-making is integral to successful comprehension and involves integrating information between clauses (local coherence) and integrating information with background knowledge (global coherence). We require appropriate methods to assess comprehension and inference-making in order to identify areas of difficulty and provide appropriate support. Typically developing children's ability to generate local and global coherence inferences was assessed. The effect of text modality (reading and listening comprehension) and presentation format (stories presented in segmented and whole story format) was explored using two comprehension measures (question answering and story retell). The main aims were to determine whether there were advantages for reading or listening comprehension and for segmented or whole text presentation. Typically developing children in Year 3 (n = 33) and Year 5 (n = 40) either read or listened to short stories. Their ability to generate global and local coherence inferences was assessed in two ways: answers to inference-tapping questions and story retelling (scored for inclusion of necessary inferences). Stories were presented in either a whole format (all questions after the story) or a segmented format (questions asked at specific points during story presentation); the retelling was always after the complete story and questions had been presented. For both comprehension measures, there was developmental progression between age groups and a benefit for the reading modality. Scores were higher for global coherence than local coherence inferences, but the effect was significant only for the question-answering responses, not retells. For retells there was a benefit in presenting the text as a whole compared with the segmented format, but this effect was not present for the comprehension questions. There was a significant interaction between inference type and modality for both comprehension measures (question answering and story retell): for the local coherence inferences scores were significantly greater in the reading compared with the listening modality, but performance on the global coherence inferences did not differ significantly between modalities. Clinicians, teachers and other professionals should consider the modality and presentation format for comprehension tasks to utilize areas of strength and support areas of difficulty. Oral presentation may result in poorer comprehension relative to written presentation in general, and may particularly affect local integrative processing. These findings have important implications for the development of appropriate assessments as well as for supporting children with comprehension difficulties. What this paper adds What is already known on the subject Reading and listening comprehension are critical for accessing the school curriculum and educational success. Inference-making is integral to successful comprehension and involves integrating information between clauses (local coherence) as well as integrating information with background knowledge (global coherence). Children have an awareness of the need to generate coherence inferences, but not all children will generate sufficient coherence inferences for adequate comprehension during text presentation. Existing assessment tools measure comprehension by asking questions after story presentation. This provides an overall indication of comprehension or inference-making ability and can identify children with comprehension or language and communication difficulties. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The study compared coherence inference-making in two presentation conditions: whole format (all questions after the story) or segmented format (questions asked at specific points during story presentation). Children (aged 7-10 years) were assessed in the reading or listening modality. Two comprehension measures were used (inference-tapping questions and story retell). There was developmental progression and a benefit for the reading modality for both comprehension measures. Scores were higher for global coherence than local coherence inferences for the comprehension questions. There was a benefit in presenting the text as a whole compared with the segmented format for story retells. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The results are important for clinicians and other professionals assessing and supporting comprehension skills. The results suggest that the modality and presentation format of comprehension tasks should be considered to utilize areas of strength and support areas of difficulty. The optimum form of input and structure may depend on a child's individual profile and the skill being assessed or supported. Targeted questions may identify a child's potential to generate an inference. This may assist identification of children who may require more targeted or specialist intervention. The reading modality may provide a means of support for development of verbal comprehension.

Freed J ，Cain K 《-》

fMRI brain response during sentence reading comprehension in children with benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes.

Children with benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (BECTS) often have language problems. Abnormal epileptic activity is found in central and temporal brain regions, which are involved in reading and semantic and syntactic comprehension. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined reading networks in BECTS children with a new sentence reading comprehension task involving semantic and syntactic processing. Fifteen children with BECTS (age=11y 1m ± 16 m; 12 boys) and 18 healthy controls (age=11 y 8m ± 20 m; 11 boys) performed an fMRI reading comprehension task in which they read a pair of syntactically complex sentences and decided whether the target sentence (the second sentence in the pair) was true or false with respect to the first sentence. All children also underwent an exhaustive neuropsychological assessment. We demonstrated weaknesses in several cognitive domains in BECTS children. During the sentence reading fMRI task, left inferior frontal regions and bilateral temporal areas were activated in BECTS children and healthy controls. However, additional brain regions such as the left hippocampus and precuneus were activated in BECTS children. Moreover, specific activation was found in the left caudate and putamen in BECTS children but not in healthy controls. Cognitive results and accuracy during the fMRI task were associated with specific brain activation patterns. BECTS children recruited a wider network to perform the fMRI sentence reading comprehension task, with specific activation in the left dorsal striatum. BECTS cognitive performance differently predicted functional activation in frontal and temporal regions compared to controls, suggesting differences in brain network organisation that contribute to reading comprehension.

Malfait D ，Tucholka A ，Mendizabal S ，Tremblay J ，Poulin C ，Oskoui M ，Srour M ，Carmant L ，Major P ，Lippé S ... -  《-》

Direct and mediated effects of language and cognitive skills on comprehension of oral narrative texts (listening comprehension) for children.

We investigated component language and cognitive skills of oral language comprehension of narrative texts (i.e., listening comprehension). Using the construction-integration model of text comprehension as an overarching theoretical framework, we examined direct and mediated relations of foundational cognitive skills (working memory and attention), foundational language skills (vocabulary and grammatical knowledge), and higher-order cognitive skills (inference, theory of mind, and comprehension monitoring) to listening comprehension. A total of 201 first grade children in South Korea participated in the study. Structural equation modeling results showed that listening comprehension is directly predicted by working memory, grammatical knowledge, inference, and theory of mind and is indirectly predicted by attention, vocabulary, and comprehension monitoring. The total effects were .46 for working memory, .07 for attention, .30 for vocabulary, .49 for grammatical knowledge, .31 for inference, .52 for theory of mind, and .18 for comprehension monitoring. These results suggest that multiple language and cognitive skills make contributions to listening comprehension, and their contributions are both direct and indirect.

Kim YS 《-》

Reading comprehension difficulties in children with rolandic epilepsy.

Difficulties in reading comprehension can arise from either word reading or listening comprehension difficulties, or a combination of the two. We sought to determine whether children with rolandic epilepsy had poor reading comprehension relative to typically developing comparison children, and whether such difficulties were associated with word reading and/or general language comprehension difficulties. In this cross-sectional study, children with rolandic epilepsy (n=25; 16 males, 9 females; mean age 9y 1mo, SD 1y 7mo) and a comparison group (n=39; 25 males, 14 females; mean age 9y 1mo, SD 1y 3mo) completed assessments of reading comprehension, listening comprehension, word/non-word reading, speech articulation, and Non-verbal IQ. Reading comprehension and word reading were worse in children with rolandic epilepsy (F1,61 =6.89, p=0.011, ηp2=0.10 and F1,61 =6.84, p=0.011, ηp2=0.10 respectively), with listening comprehension being marginal (F1,61 =3.81, p=0.055, ηp2=0.06). Word reading and listening comprehension made large and independent contributions to reading comprehension, explaining 70% of the variance. Children with rolandic epilepsy may be at risk of reading comprehension difficulties. Thorough assessment of individual children is required to ascertain whether the difficulties lie with decoding text, or with general comprehension skills, or both. Children with rolandic epilepsy may be at risk of poor reading comprehension. This was related to poor word reading, poor listening comprehension, or both. Reading comprehension interventions should be tailored to the profile of difficulties.

Currie NK ，Lew AR ，Palmer TM ，Basu H ，De Goede C ，Iyer A ，Cain K ... -  《-》