A5002765772- Reading and Literacy Development
- Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills
- Writing and Handwriting Education
- Language Development and Disorders
- Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques
- Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Text Readability and Simplification
- Child Development and Digital Technology
- Linguistic Education and Pedagogy
- Hearing Impairment and Communication
- Linguistic research and analysis
- Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Teaching and Learning Programming
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Children's Physical and Motor Development
- EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
- Lexicography and Language Studies
- Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity
- Congenital heart defects research
- Neuroscience, Education and Cognitive Function
- Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Education Methods and Practices
University of Graz
2014-2023
BioTechMed-Graz
2014-2023
Macquarie University
2019-2022
Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Psychology
2022
University of Salzburg
1997-2020
University of Tübingen
2006-2017
Institut für Psychologische Psychotherapie
2011
Bangor University
2010
University College London
2001-2004
National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery
2004
In a longitudinal study, development of word reading fluency and spelling were followed for almost 8 years. group 115 students (65 girls, 50 boys) acquiring the phonologically transparent German orthography, prediction measures (letter knowledge, phonological short-term memory, awareness, rapid automatized naming, nonverbal IQ) assessed at beginning Grade 1; tested end 1 as well in Grades 4 8. Reading accuracy was close to ceiling all assessments, such that not heavily influenced by...
In 2 large longitudinal studies, we selected 3 subgroups of German-speaking children (phonological awareness deficit, naming-speed double deficit) at the beginning school and assessed reading spelling performance about years later. Quite different from findings with English-speaking children, phonological deficits did not affect coding in word recognition but orthographic foreign-word reading. Naming-speed fluency, spelling, Apparently, context a regular orthography synthetic phonics...
Background: The relationship between phoneme awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), verbal short‐term/working memory (ST/WM) and diagnostic category is investigated in control dyslexic children, the extent to which this depends on orthographic complexity. Methods: General cognitive, phonological literacy skills were tested 1,138 1,114 children speaking six different languages spanning a large range of complexity (Finnish, Hungarian, German, Dutch, French, English). Results: Phoneme...
In order to fully specify the profiles of risk and protective factors developmental disorders, a better understanding conditions under which they co-occur is required. So far, empirical evidence on comorbidities specific learning disorders in arithmetic, reading spelling scarce.Prevalence gender ratios arithmetic (AD), (RD), (SD) their co-occurrence were assessed large (N = 2586) population-based sample elementary school children subsample 293 with at least one disorder (LD-sample). A...
Although phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) are confirmed as early predictors of reading in a large number orthographies, it is yet unclear whether the predictive patterns universal or language specific. This was examined longitudinal study across Grades 1 2 with 1,120 children acquiring one five alphabetic orthographies different degrees orthographic complexity (English, French, German, Dutch, Greek). Path analyses revealed that model could not be confirmed. When...
Abstract Reading and writing are crucial life skills but roughly one in ten children affected by dyslexia, which can persist into adulthood. Family studies of dyslexia suggest heritability up to 70%, yet few convincing genetic markers have been found. Here we performed a genome-wide association study 51,800 adults self-reporting diagnosis 1,087,070 controls identified 42 independent significant loci: 15 genes linked cognitive ability/educational attainment, 27 new potentially more specific...
The use of spoken and written language is a fundamental human capacity. Individual differences in reading- language-related skills are influenced by genetic variation, with twin-based heritability estimates 30 to 80% depending on the trait. architecture complex, heterogeneous, multifactorial, but investigations contributions single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were thus far underpowered. We present multicohort genome-wide association study (GWAS) five traits assessed individually using...
Abstract Orthographic consistency in different languages is likely to have an effect on phonological recoding skills, which are basic the acquisition of reading. To explore this issue, we investigated word and nonword reading German- English-speaking 7- 12-year-old children. Comparability stimuli across 2 was strictly controlled: The German English words used were common both languages. Nonwords derived by exchanging consonantal onsets between short recombining syllables long words. An...
Abstract This study examined whether the characteristic reading speed impairment of German dyslexic children results from a general skill-automatization deficit sensu Nicolson and Fawcett (1990) or more specific deficits in visual naming phonological skills. The hypothesized was assessed by balancing, peg moving, search. Rapid "automatized" tasks served as measures impaired speed, speech perception, sensitivity, memory tasks. Dyslexic age-matched control (all boys) were tested at end Grade 2...
A widely held assumption about dyslexia is that difficulties in accessing the constituent phonemes of speech stream are responsible for specific reading and spelling difficulties. In consistent orthographies, however, acquisition accurate phonological recoding phonemic awareness was found to pose much less difficulty than English, even dyslexic children were exhibit high levels performance segmentation (Wimmer, 1993). Nevertheless, using a rather complex manipulation task (spoonerisms:...
Abstract In three large samples (N = 1248) of children learning to read German we investigated the correlations between rapid automatized naming (RAN), phonological awareness (PA), decoding (nonword reading fluency), and orthographic processing (word fluency spelling). a series hierarchical regression analyses, RAN explained more variance in word nonword than PA, whereas PA spelling RAN. This pattern was confirmed when response times were assessed instead accuracy. Two further models...
High comorbidity rates between reading disorder (RD) and mathematics (MD) indicate that, although the cognitive core deficits underlying these disorders are distinct, additional domain-general risk factors might be shared disorders. Three abilities were investigated in children with RD MD: processing speed, temporal processing, working memory. Since attention problems frequently co-occur learning disorders, study examined whether three factors, which known to associated problems, account for...
In two studies dissociations between reading and spelling skills were examined. Study 1 reports equally high prevalence rates for isolated deficits in (7%) or (6%) a representative sample (N = 2,029) of German-speaking elementary school children. 2, children with presented the same words to read spell. The double dissociation was replicated. Good readers/poor spellers named pseudohomophones as quickly their corresponding words, phonological awareness adequate, suggesting that might be based...
Abstract Enumeration performance in standard dot counting paradigms was investigated for different age groups with typical and atypically poor development of arithmetic skills. Experiment 1 showed a high correspondence between response times saccadic frequencies four development. Age differences were more marked the than subitizing range. In 2 we found discontinuity dyscalculic children; however, their slopes steeper those typically developing control groups, indicating dysfunctional...
Abstract Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a learning disorder affecting the ability to read, with heritability of 40–60%. A notable part this remains unexplained, and large genetic studies are warranted identify new susceptibility genes clarify bases dyslexia. We carried out genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 2274 cases 6272 controls, testing associations at single variant, gene, pathway level, estimating using single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data. also calculated polygenic scores...
Abstract Developmental dyslexia (DD) is one of the most prevalent learning disorders, with high impact on school and psychosocial development comorbidity conditions like attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, anxiety. DD characterized by deficits in different cognitive skills, including word reading, spelling, rapid naming, phonology. To investigate genetic basis DD, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) these skills within largest studies available, nine...
In this paper, we survey current evidence on cognitive precursors of reading in different orthographies by reviewing studies with a cross-linguistic research design. Graphic symbol knowledge, phonological awareness, morphological and rapid automatized naming were found to be associated acquisition all investigated. However, apart from naming, association is mostly interactive, meaning that young children develop their awareness during development. Especially for involving phonologically...
Numerical processing has been demonstrated to be closely associated with arithmetic skills, however, our knowledge on the development of relevant cognitive mechanisms is limited. The present longitudinal study investigated developmental trajectories numerical in 42 children age-adequate and 41 dyscalculia over a 2-year period from beginning Grade 2, when were 7; 6 years old, 4. A battery tasks (dot enumeration, non-symbolic symbolic comparison one- two-digit numbers, physical comparison,...