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1. Developmental changes in the categorization of speech and song

   https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13346  

   Vanden Bosch der Nederlanden, Christina M. ; Qi, Xin ; Sequeira, Sarah ; Seth, Prakhar ; Grahn, Jessica A. ; Joanisse, Marc F. ; Hannon, Erin E. ( November 2022 , Developmental Science)

   Music and language are two fundamental forms of human communication. Many studies examine the development of music‐ and language‐specific knowledge, but few studies compare how listeners know they are listening to music or language. Although we readily differentiate these domains, how we distinguish music and language—and especially speech and song— is not obvious. In two studies, we asked how listeners categorize speech and song. Study 1 used online survey data to illustrate that 4‐ to 17‐year‐olds and adults have verbalizable distinctions for speech and song. At all ages, listeners described speech and song differences based on acoustic features, but compared with older children, 4‐ to 7‐year‐olds more often used volume to describe differences, suggesting that they are still learning to identify the features most useful for differentiating speech from song. Study 2 used a perceptual categorization task to demonstrate that 4–8‐year‐olds and adults readily categorize speech and song, but this ability improves with age especially for identifying song. Despite generally rating song as more speech‐like, 4‐ and 6‐year‐olds rated ambiguous speech–song stimuli as more song‐like than 8‐year‐olds and adults. Four acoustic features predicted song ratings: F0 instability, utterance duration, harmonicity, and spectral flux. However, 4‐ and 6‐year‐olds’ song ratings were better predicted by F0 instability than by harmonicity and utterance duration. These studies characterize how children develop conceptual and perceptual understandings of speech and song and suggest that children under age 8 are still learning what features are important for categorizing utterances as speech or song.

   Children and adults conceptually and perceptually categorize speech and song from age 4.

   Listeners use F0 instability, harmonicity, spectral flux, and utterance duration to determine whether vocal stimuli sound like song.

   Acoustic cue weighting changes with age, becoming adult‐like at age 8 for perceptual categorization and at age 12 for conceptual differentiation.

   Young children are still learning to categorize speech and song, which leaves open the possibility that music‐ and language‐specific skills are not so domain‐specific.

    

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2. High‐definition transcranial direct current stimulation dissociates fronto‐visual theta lateralization during visual selective attention

   https://doi.org/10.1113/JP278788  

   Spooner, Rachel K. ; Eastman, Jacob A. ; Rezich, Michael T. ; Wilson, Tony W. ( February 2020 , The Journal of Physiology)

   Visual attention involves discrete multispectral oscillatory responses in visual and ‘higher‐order’ prefrontal cortices.

   Prefrontal cortex laterality effects during visual selective attention are poorly characterized.

   High‐definition transcranial direct current stimulation dynamically modulated right‐lateralized fronto‐visual theta oscillations compared to those observed in left fronto‐visual pathways.

   Increased connectivity in right fronto‐visual networks after stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex resulted in faster task performance in the context of distractors.

   Our findings show clear laterality effects in theta oscillatory activity along prefrontal–visual cortical pathways during visual selective attention.

   Studies of visual attention have implicated oscillatory activity in the recognition, protection and temporal organization of attended representations in visual cortices. These studies have also shown that higher‐order regions such as the prefrontal cortex are critical to attentional processing, but far less is understood regarding prefrontal laterality differences in attention processing. To examine this, we selectively applied high‐definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD‐tDCS) to the left or right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). We predicted that HD‐tDCS of the leftversusright prefrontal cortex would differentially modulate performance on a visual selective attention task, and alter the underlying oscillatory network dynamics. Our randomized crossover design included 27 healthy adults that underwent three separate sessions of HD‐tDCS (sham, left DLPFC and right DLPFC) for 20 min. Following stimulation, participants completed an attention protocol during magnetoencephalography. The resulting oscillatory dynamics were imaged using beamforming, and peak task‐related neural activity was subjected to dynamic functional connectivity analyses to evaluate the impact of stimulation site (i.e. left and right DLPFC) on neural interactions. Our results indicated that HD‐tDCS over the left DLPFC differentially modulated right fronto‐visual functional connectivity within the theta band compared to HD‐tDCS of the right DLPFC and further, specifically modulated the oscillatory response for detecting targets among an array of distractors. Importantly, these findings provide network‐specific insight into the complex oscillatory mechanisms serving visual selective attention.

    

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3. Sharpening, focusing, and developing: A study of change in nonsymbolic number comparison skills and math achievement in 1st grade

   https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13194  

   Wilkey, Eric D. ; Shanley, Lina ; Sabb, Fred ; Ansari, Daniel ; Cohen, Jason C. ; Men, Virany ; Heller, Nicole A. ; Clarke, Ben ( May 2022 , Developmental Science)

   Bortfeld, Heather ; de Haan, Michelle ; Nelson, Charles A. ; Quinn, Paul C. (Ed.)

   Children's ability to discriminate nonsymbolic number (e.g., the number of items in a set) is a commonly studied predictor of later math skills. Number discrimination improves throughout development, but what drives this improvement is unclear. Competing theories suggest that it may be due to a sharpening numerical representation or an improved ability to pay attention to number and filter out non‐numerical information. We investigate this issue by studying change in children's performance (N = 65) on a nonsymbolic number comparison task, where children decide which of two dot arrays has more dots, from the middle to the end of 1st grade (mean age at time 1 = 6.85 years old). In this task, visual properties of the dot arrays such as surface area are either congruent (the more numerous array has more surface area) or incongruent. Children rely more on executive functions during incongruent trials, so improvements in each congruency condition provide information about the underlying cognitive mechanisms. We found that accuracy rates increased similarly for both conditions, indicating a sharpening sense of numerical magnitude, not simply improved attention to the numerical task dimension. Symbolic number skills predicted change in congruent trials, but executive function did not predict change in either condition. No factor predicted change in math achievement. Together, these findings suggest that nonsymbolic number processing undergoes development related to existing symbolic number skills, development that appears not to be driving math gains during this period.

   Children's ability to discriminate nonsymbolic number improves throughout development. Competing theories suggest improvement due to sharpening magnitude representations or changes in attention and inhibition.

   The current study investigates change in nonsymbolic number comparison performance during first grade and whether symbolic number skills, math skills, or executive function predict change.

   Children's performance increased across visual control conditions (i.e., congruent or incongruent with number) suggesting an overall sharpening of number processing.

   Symbolic number skills predicted change in nonsymbolic number comparison performance.

    

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4. Teaching little kids big sentences: A randomized controlled trial showing that children with DLD respond to complex syntax intervention embedded within the context of preschool/kindergarten science instruction

   https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12882  

   Owen Van Horne, Amanda J. ; Curran, Maura ; Cook, Susan Wagner ; Cole, Renée ; McGregor, Karla K. ( May 2023 , International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders)

   The language of the science curriculum is complex, even in the early grades. To communicate their scientific observations, children must produce complex syntax, particularly complement clauses (e.g.,I think it will float;We noticed that it vibrates). Complex syntax is often challenging for children with developmental language disorder (DLD), and thus their learning and communication of science may be compromised.

   We asked whether recast therapy delivered in the context of a science curriculum led to gains in complement clause use and scientific content knowledge. To understand the efficacy of recast therapy, we compared changes in science and language knowledge in children who received treatment for complement clauses embedded in a first‐grade science curriculum to two active control conditions (vocabulary + science, phonological awareness + science).

   This 2‐year single‐site three‐arm parallel randomized controlled trial was conducted in Delaware, USA. Children with DLD, not yet in first grade and with low accuracy on complement clauses, were eligible. Thirty‐three 4–7‐year‐old children participated in the summers of 2018 and 2019 (2020 was cancelled due to COVID‐19). We assigned participants to arms using 1:1:1 pseudo‐random allocation (avoiding placing siblings together). The intervention consisted of 39 small‐group sessions of recast therapy, robust vocabulary instruction or phonological awareness intervention during eight science units over 4 weeks, followed by two science units (1 week) taught without language intervention. Pre‐/post‐measures were collected 3 weeks before and after camp by unmasked assessors.

   Primary outcome measures were accuracy on a 20‐item probe of complement clause production and performance on ten 10‐item unit tests (eight science + language, two science only). Complete data were available for 31 children (10 grammar, 21 active control); two others were lost to follow‐up. Both groups made similar gains on science unit tests for science + language content (pre versus post,d= 2.9,p< 0.0001; group,p= 0.24). The grammar group performed significantly better at post‐test than the active control group (d= 2.5,p= 0.049) on complement clause probes and marginally better on science‐only unit tests (d= 2.5,p= 0.051).

   Children with DLD can benefit from language intervention embedded in curricular content and learn both language and science targets taught simultaneously. Tentative findings suggest that treatment for grammar targets may improve academic outcomes.

   We know that recast therapy focused on morphology is effective but very time consuming. Treatment for complex syntax in young children has preliminary efficacy data available. Prior research provides mixed evidence as to children’s ability to learn language targets in conjunction with other information.

   This study provides additional data supporting the efficacy of intensive complex syntax recast therapy for children ages 4–7 with Developmental Language Disorder. It also provides data that children can learn language targets and science curricular content simultaneously.

   As SLPs, we have to talk about something to deliver language therapy; we should consider talking about curricular content. Recast therapy focused on syntactic frames is effective with young children.

    

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5. Programming as a language for young children to express and explore mathematics in school

   https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13080  

   Goldenberg, E. Paul ; Carter, Cynthia J. ( May 2021 , British Journal of Educational Technology)

   Natural language helps express mathematical thinking and contexts. Conventional mathematical notation (CMN) best suits expressions and equations. Each is essential; each also has limitations, especially for learners. Our research studies how programming can be a advantageous third language that can also help restore mathematical connections that are hidden by topic‐centred curricula. Restoring opportunities for surprise and delight reclaims mathematics' creative nature. Studies of children's use of language in mathematics and their programming behaviours guide our iterative design/redesign of mathematical microworlds in which students, ages 7–11, use programming in their regular school lessonsas a language for learning mathematics. Though driven by mathematics, not coding, the microworlds develop the programming over time so that it continues to support children's developing mathematical ideas. This paper briefly describes microworlds EDC has tested with well over 400 7‐to‐8‐year‐olds in school, and others tested (or about to be tested) with over 200 8‐to‐11‐year‐olds. Our challenge was to satisfy schools' topical orientation and fit easily within regular classroom study but use and foreshadow other mathematical learning to remove the siloes. The design/redesign research and evaluation is exploratory, without formal methodology. We are also more formally studying effects on children's learning. That ongoing study is not reported here.

   What is already known

   Active learning—doing—supports learning.

   Collaborative learning—doingtogether—supports learning.

   Classroom discourse—focused, relevantdiscussion, not just listening—supports learning.

   Clear articulation of one's thinking, even just to oneself, helps develop that thinking.

   What this paper adds

   The common languages we use for classroom mathematics—natural language for conveying the meaning and context of mathematical situations and for explaining our reasoning; and the formal (written) language of conventional mathematical notation, the symbols we use in mathematical expressions and equations—are both essential but each presents hurdles that necessitate the other. Yet, even together, they are insufficient especially for young learners.

   Programming, appropriately designed and used, can be the third language that both reduces barriers and provides the missing expressive and creative capabilities children need.

   Appropriate design for use in regular mathematics classrooms requires making key mathematical content obvious, strong and the ‘driver’ of the activities, and requires reducing tech ‘overhead’ to near zero.

   Continued usefulness across the grades requires developing children's sophistication and knowledge with the language; the powerful ways that children rapidly acquire facility with (natural) language provides guidance for ways they can learn a formal language as well.

   Implications for policy and/or practice

   Mathematics teaching can take advantage of the ways children learn through experimentation and attention to the results, and of the ways children use their language brain even for mathematics.

   In particular, programming—in microworlds driven by the mathematical content, designed to minimise distraction and overhead, open to exploration and discoveryen routeto focused aims, and in which childrenself‐evaluate—can allow clear articulation of thought, experimentation with immediate feedback.

   As it aids the mathematics, it also builds computational thinking and satisfies schools' increasing concerns to broaden access to ideas of computer science.

    

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